Casting Crowns “Thrive” Album Review

Often we have spoilt our spiritual appetites by feeding on calorie piling treats that only expand our waistline but they are never truly satisfying.  As a result, we do not have room to feast on God's lavish bounties.  We are easily contented with a piece of chewing gum when God offers to us a juicy slice of beef mignon. Casting Crowns on their seventh studio album "Thrive" helps us to channel our hunger in the direction of God's finest (and most gratifying) cuisines.  Listening to this album is like dinning on a 12-course meal that not even the best of the Iron chefs could rival.  Released conterminously with Mark Hall's newest book "Thrive - Digging Deep, Reaching Out," "Thrive" like its paper counterpart is here to challenge us to move beyond superficiality to a faith that is deeply rooted in Jesus Christ with branches that reach towards others in Christ-like love.  Once again "Thrive" finds Sawyer Brown's lead vocalist Mark A. Miller on the producer's chair.  Being a veteran in the music industry who had had a string of crossover success both in country and contemporary music, Miller has deftly carved for Casting Crowns their own identity.  Instead of just lazily gravitating towards the grunge-rock sound that has been so uniformly embraced by so many Christian groups today, Miller has often brought in nuances of folk, country, acoustic, bluegrass and even some classical embellishments that make the sound of Casting Crowns patented.

Casting Crowns is arguably one of CCM's most successful bands around.  Sales of their records have exceeded over 5 million copies.  Only tailing behind Jars of Clay, Casting Crowns is the fastest Christian band to have their two albums certified platinum selling over a million copies each.   According to R&R magazine, their song "Praise You in This Storm" was the fifth most played song in 2006.  With the aid of some crunchy guitar riffs and some interesting banjo flicks, Casting Crowns on the title cut "Thrive" goes for the deep end as far as God is concerned.  Refusing to live lives that count for anything less than God desires, Casting Crowns spells out their lives' mantra as they sing: "Joy unspeakable! Faith unsinkable! Love Unstoppable!  Anything is possible!"  Lead single "All You've Ever Wanted" is a delicious slice of art: listen to how the piano arpeggios starts of the song before layer upon layer of instrumentations is built before Hall breaks into a diapason at the chorus.     

Carrying on the trajectory that we have to thrive for deeper relationship with God is the perky "Dream for You."  Weaving out the faith elements in the stories of King David and Mary, Casting Crowns challenges us to live on faith's limps. To add to the poignancy of the song, Hall has brought in his youth group to sing the song's backing vocals.  Lyrically, not all the songs here are John Maxwell-styled motivational quips.  "You Are the Only One" finds Casting Crowns in church leading what is a charmer of a worship song that triumphs on its big melodious hooks.  While the piano ballad "Just Be Held" is a ministering moment to those who feel like their world is caving in.  Standing from God's vantage point, we are assured:  "Your world's not falling apart, it's falling into place. I'm on the throne. Stop holding on and just be held." With "Broken Together," we find ourselves deep in the Delta of tears land.  Though "Broken Together" offers no simple 12-steps to saving a crumbling marriage; yet, it offers couples the worshipful moment of bringing their prides and hurts before God in humility waiting upon God to heal the riffs in their relationship.  This is a marriage-saving song that ought to be played in all marriage counselling sessions.

One of the reasons why one would purchase a Casting Crown album is that they are great story tellers.  As far as story songs go, "Waiting on the Night to Fall" is a lodestar.  The song's haunting lyrics about addiction uses the metaphor of an old man lurking in the woods, biding his time, as Hall sings: "He knows you have the answers, but truth lies dusty on your shelf and the sword that you could slay him with has become an ornament and nothing else." "Thrive," just like the songs' themes, is anything but a superficial record.  This is an album that will get us putting on our thinking caps.  But more importantly, this is a collection of songs that aim for the heart; Hall and his team have never been more transparent and compelling than this their seventh time charm.   

 

 

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