David Crowder* Band's new album, Give Us Rest, is nothing short of a masterpiece that takes listeners on a journey through brokenness and darkness, to a sense of rebirth and new life - how fitting for a band making its farewell after 12 years together.
"Oh Great God, Give Us Rest" is a heart-soaring opener to this epic collection of 34 tracks and in true David Crowder style, there are some real toe-tappers in the mix.
The triumphant "Fall On Your Knees", "Come Find Me" and "Let Me Fell You Shine" ring out an affirmation of the heartfelt praise we have come to admire in David Crowder, an admission that without God and his grace over our lives, we are not only nothing, we are utterly lost.
While many of the tracks are rousing, the collection is punctuated by poignant interludes that nod to a different time and a sense that time is passing.
The album takes an unexpected diversion with some goth rock sequences that harken to the toughest spiritual battles believers and indeed the world can face.
They make for some pretty dramatic listening and are testimony to the amount of thought that goes into this band's music.
Indeed, the way in which the album captures the spiritual realities of darkness and light, death and new life through music is genius.
Yet permeating the album is hope, the sense that even if we go to the very edge of darkness, almost to the point of falling in, the light always brings us back and will ultimately defeat all darkness.
It's the realism - the admission that faith is not always easy - that makes Give Us Rest so comforting, so reassuring, and so powerful.
This album will surely be remembered as their finest, a fitting seal on a legacy that will continue to bless the church and its people long after the band's end.