David Crowder Band - Remedy Review
by Dan MacIntosh
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The David Crowder Band is a paradox: This group is lumped in with Christian praise and worship music, yet Crowder himself is an artistic restless spirit, a trait not usually associated with this normally predictable genre. On a very basic level, Remedy points to Jesus as the world's most essential medicine; able to cure whatever makes you ill. It's not Crowder's best work, but because Crowder consistently pushes the envelope more vigilantly than most of his peers, there are more than enough supportable reasons to recommend the work.
Right after the disc's opener, "Glory of It All" -- a wonderful rumination on how God puts up with man's constant crap river because His healing and forgiveness ultimately brings Him the glory -- we get this disc's one true clunker out of the way. "Can You Feel It?", although a rocker that smartly incorporates hip-hop scratches into its busy mix, has an embarrassingly flawed lyrical focus. Crowder asks, "The love in this place/Can you feel it?" What sort of theology is that? Is it some gospel of touchy-feely? It ends up coming off like a half-baked scratch lyric.
But Crowder quickly redeems himself with "Everything Glorious". This track features the sort of lyric that can't help but make a guy feel good. "Yeah, you make/Everything glorious/And I am Yours/What does that make me?" The highlights just keep coming after that. Crowder, the Baptist he is, always finds room for old hymns on his releases, and in this case, his selected standard is "O, For a Thousand Tongues". He gives his cover a beautiful Celtic feel and embellishes the lyric with a few lines of his own, yet doesn't take away any power from the original. This CD's title track, another highlight, is a lovely waltz time ode to the ultimate Medicine Man. Remedy then closes with a beautiful folk ballad titled "Surely We Can Change". Over acoustic guitar and violin, Crowder admonishes his fellow men: "Where there is pain/Let there be grace/Where there is suffering/Bring serenity."
You may not consider Crowder's spiritual Remedy doctor's orders, but when he suggests, "Where there is pain/Let there be grace," it is impossible to argue with logic like that � whether you happen to share his theology or not.
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David Crowder Band - Remedy
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