Music is this experiential world that pulls at our emotions and sometimes says the very words we needed to hear without saying anything at all. For thousands and thousands of years, people have been singing songs, and we find ourselves at a point in history when all the decorations we’ve used to dress up the songs we sing in the church have been temporarily boxed up. Perhaps there’s never been a better time for honest introspection as we consider the songs that we sing in the church. Songs that teach us our theology. Build our faith. Rattle our defences.
Give breath to our emotions. It’s just a voice and an instrument now in front of a shaky camera leading the people of God. This is the moment where we dig deeper than music can ever go. Citizens’ new album “The Joy Of Being” was first written as a call to get back to the middle ground, to a space that occupies more than just emotion or thought but the soul; a call to be. To find contentment in the absence of production and the honesty of an unrefined voice lifted up in praise to our glorious God.
“These songs are yours to use in whatever way you want, we have intentionally made these arrangements as basic as possible to leave room for your imagination,” says singer Zach Bolen. (That’s why ‘The Joy of Being’ was first recorded on iPhones!) There is a world of possibilities and a number of ways for us to articulate that through our own individual creativity!
