LISTEN HERE:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7aYN3ImZcHkloKR4LGvHcV?si=avCXywPLTFehMkhFKSeAiA
In my opinion, you can't appreciate Colony House's music to the fullest extent until you know their story.
Caleb and Will Chapman, the lead singer and drummer, respectively, are the two oldest sons of Christian music legend Steven Curtis Chapman. Steven and his wife, Mary Beth Chapman, adopted three young girls from China in 2004, the littlest of which was Maria Sue. In 2008, she was tragically killed in a car accident in the driveway of their family home.
Obviously, this was a huge blow to the entire family, and they experienced unimaginable pain and grief from this sudden loss of a beautiful young life. But what was even more remarkable than the tragedy was the Chapmans' strength, faith, and hope in healing, forgiving, and moving forward. Caleb and Will have always used their music in Colony House to spread that message of inspiring hope, even in the face of tragedy and temptation to despair. This new release is no exception.
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Looking for Some Light opens the record with a slowly building anthem, reminding us that “everybody's looking for some light” in the midst of life's journeys and trials.
Oh, and when the world is weighing on your shoulder
When the sorrow's heavy on your soul
Carry on and sing it like a soldier
Saying, “Come on! Come on!
We're gonna make it home!”
Next, we enter into interlude territory with Runaway Pt. 1 (Love Has A Limit). It's a simple, short verse, with a slight vocoder effect on the vocals, which is one of my favorite things to hear from a production standpoint. It expresses the feeling of being a runaway and lost in the middle, wondering if “even love has a limit, love can't forgive it all away.”
Leave What's Lost Behind really kicks things off as the title track, and I think it sounds like an homage to U2 with that stadium rock feel. It assures that “this foundation is something real you can believe in.” This song will have plenty of power as a live performance, with lyrics that are easy to yell along to.
Original Material is the pop-leaning single that has a fun, upbeat feel, and a message not to fit in and to be unique and original. They ask “why can't you be yourself, man?”, something that I'm sure we could all stand to ask ourselves once in a while. The bridge breaks down to half time, which adds a nice little change in dynamics to an otherwise straightforward pop groove.
El Capitan is, for lack of a better term, a real banger. This is where we get into their bouncy style of rock n' roll, as well as some unexpected hip-hop flavor with slowed down choruses & electronic hi hats. El Capitan is a rock face in Yosemite National Park that's notoriously difficult to summit, and Colony House says they'd tackle it for the one they love:
You say love is like a mountain, treacherous and true
Girl, don't you know that I would climb up El Capitan for you
Why Even Try is hands down my favorite track from this album, because I am always an emotional wreck when it comes to Colony House's inspiring ballads. As shown by the story behind their lives, any encouraging song they write is so much more special than what meets the eye.
The song expresses the fear deep inside of failing any new thing we attempt to accomplish or change- 'the damage is done, so why even try?” The tone changes halfway through, however, and reminds us that “everyone's scared that they're not enough, that I'm permanently broken”. They tell us that there is always hope, and I'll let the rest of the bridge speak for itself:
So why do I always measure the truth with the weight of a lie?
Nothing's broken inside of me for good, I'm healing in time the way I should
I can see it if I keep my head held high, arms open wide
Heart full, clear eyes
All the doubts, all the lies
Are too heavy to carry alone, so why even try?
Runaway Pt. 2 (Love Is A Compass) is the second installment in the interlude category, which comes to the realization that “love is a compass, lies have been leading you instead”. The lies of self doubt and discouragement can be a difficult path to veer away from, but it's too heavy of a load to bear when you could walk towards hope and love instead.
I have a dedicated Single Saturday about the next track, Where I'm From, which you can read here! It's a lovely break in the action, with a simple, Southern Gospel flair.
Take It Slow is, contrary to what you may think, far from slow. It brings the energy right back up, all about “living while you're alive” and fighting for the moments while you have them. This track ends with a sudden drop into a breakdown of sorts, with that same hip-hop influence we've seen in a few of the other tracks. I get what they were going for, but I'm not the biggest fan of the change-up in this song, it doesn't quite fit right.
Julia is a wonderful guitar ballad about Caleb's wife... you guessed it, she's named Julia. It's sweet, simple, and uses many metaphors to describe her beauty.
Her hand in the palm of my hand makes me feel like I am who I say I am
I hold it closer than a memory
Her voice is the sound that I hear when I start to disappear into the noise again, I hear her calling in the wind
Her eyes like a Tennessee sunrise color in the clouds I'm living in
Once you have seen it, you never forget
If I was named Julia, I'd want to slow dance to it all the time, but it's not, so I can still appreciate it from a distance!
Trying goes through the many expectations of life- to have good manners, succeed in your career, and keep pressing on- and how sometimes it feels like you've just been trying to breathe and simply survive for so long. It calls back to the title track- “Looking for some light to carry me through, just to make it to morning”. This track makes one of the best interesting musical choices in my opinion, using an analog synth lead to fill out the choruses, and messing with vocal effects as well.
Runaway Pt. 3 (The Weight) wraps up the narrative of the interludes, simple asking “can you carry the weight?” This appears to be a callback to Why Even Try, which ends with the sentiment that we cannot carry the weight of our struggles on our own, and we need to reach out to loved ones and be in community in order to have a hopeful, joy-filled life.
The Hope Inside closes this album in signature Colony House style, pulling out one more rock tune to remind us that “the hope inside comes alive when it's all we have left.” It looks ahead to the main reason Colony House has this unwavering hope- their faith and trust in God that everything that happens is for a greater purpose.
Maybe there's a reason why this world spins around in circles
Like it's giving us another try, every sunrise to find purpose
Has it been happening all this time like another breath that goes unnoticed?
I'm leaving what is lost behind to find the light
Oh, 'cause maybe it's the hope inside that comes alive
When it's all we have left
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