One of CROWDER’s favorite selections from CHURCH MUSIC is “God Almighty, None Compares,” because he loves “the guitar harmony...the guitarmony, if you will, and shredding is involved, which always makes me smile. It doesn’t wind up in our music very often but this song just seemed to beg for it, so we obliged.” For the epic “Eastern Hymn,” which is the rest of the band’s favorite song on the disc, CROWDER commissioned the translation of an ancient Chinese prayer book which he’d found last summer while the band was on the Passion World Tour, and portions of the translated tome appear in the song’s chorus.
The track “Oh, Happiness” sounds like it could have sprung from the minds of the MGMT lads and, “has a lot of sunshine in it,” CROWDER enthuses. Then, you get to the vocoder-heavy title track, which is “as close to Studio 54 as we could get,” the frontman says with a chuckle. “We wanted to put a party from Studio 54 on the record and I know its going to be really fun live. That song is sort of our pronouncement that CHURCH MUSIC helps us realign ourselves to some of the more beautiful things about our existence.” The band even tackles a cover on the disc that has to be heard to be believed: Flyleaf’s “All Around Me.” Flyleaf lead singer Lacey Mosely also appears on the album, singing background vocals on various tracks, as well as the Dupree sisters from Eisley.
The band hopes their self-produced recording will prompt listeners to recognize the continual evolvement of music within the Church as well as transport them into an awareness that we exist within the very presence of God, therefore allowing CHURCH MUSIC to happen anywhere. “I hope this album serves as a reminder of music within the Church, of its richness and its broadness, and the tension that exists in using elements of cultural language to express our collective experience and also still remain a transformative presence that is set apart,” admits band frontman David Crowder.
