Customer Reviews

Looked Upon

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The auditorium is packed with 3,500 young people, lifting their hands and singing at the top of their lungs. Chest-pounding bass and loud drums combine with the sound of 7,000 feet hitting the floor as everyone begins jumping up and down, following Devon Kauflin, the lead singer on the stage. Devon and the six other members of the Na Band have led worship at New Attitude (Na), a yearly conference for singles and young couples, for several years. The theme of the conference is "Humble Orthodoxy"--the band's self-proclaimed purpose is "to set `humble orthodoxy' to music." 1 As they go about doing this, the band members themselves seem to exude humility. Devon wears similar looking clothes every day of the conference: a dark button up shirt, jeans, and Timberlands. At the conclusion of a song, when the 7,000 hands clap, he usually steps back quietly from the microphone and lifts his hands, giving praise to God.

In 2007, the Na Band embarked upon a long put-off project: recording a CD. The finished product, Looked Upon (or "Lu" for short), is, according to Devon, "meant to bring the Gospel to bear in an artistically unique and creative way." 2 The eleven-track album is a little-known treasure, and it is an excellent listening choice for fans of both Gospel-centered hymns and indie-rock style. Theological richness (expressed in beautiful lyrics), and edgy, modern melodies blend together to create a distinctively creative and mature first-time effort.

Devon says that the Na Band's reason for making the album is "...to marvel at the fact that `He looked upon our helpless state and led us to the cross.'" 2 This description, which also happens to be a line from the last track of the CD ("All I Have is Christ"), effectively summarizes and crystallizes the message of each and every well-written song. Whether the lyrics date from the 18th century (Isaac Watts), 19th century (Horatius Bonar and some lesser known hymnists Josiah Conder, Philip Bliss, and John Kent), or the 21st (Bob, Devon, and Jordan Kauflin), all seek to beautifully emphasize Gospel truths, specifically the intertwined doctrines of the sovereignty of God, the sinfulness of man, the centrality and significance of the cross, and the resulting hope of heaven.

God's magnificent sovereignty is celebrated and described in several tracks, including the appropriately titled "God Over All," which addresses Him as, "God over all / Giver of life and health and breath." A few tracks later, "Behold Our God" continues the theme: "Fear not my soul / Trust in His plan / Over all the world / God reigns." God's sovereignty seems to act as a thread--sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle--running through all of the songs and connecting with all other themes.

For example, the theme of the sovereignty of God is inextricably and succinctly linked with the sinfulness of man in the in the first verse of "My Lord, I Did Not Choose You": "My Lord, I did not choose You / For that could never be / My heart would still refuse You / Had You not chosen me." As mentioned above, the Na Band is committed to setting "Humble Orthodoxy" to music, and humble they certainly are. They are honest about the total depravity of man: "Jesus, Be My All" honestly assesses man's natural self when it laments, "How sad our state by nature is / Our sin how deep it stains / When Satan takes our captive minds / And binds us with His chains." In "What Mystery," man's sin and it's implications are presented in another way: "Just one sin / Left me on my own / Deserving wrath unknown / But still I live."

How can one who deserves wrath unknown still live? The thread of the sovereignty of God weaves through the sinfulness of man and then weaves into it the message of the cross, connecting them and giving the CD an overall tone of hope. The exultant "Ransomed" declares: "When my sin begins to tell me / All is lost, my guilt displayed / I will look and see my Savior / Jesus Christ, who bore my blame / And neither death nor life nor anything / Can ever keep me from His love." The joyful anthem "What a Savior" praises Christ for His work on the cross: "Savior, You showed Your love / Defeated our sin, poured out Your blood / So we praise You, Lamb that was slain / We offer our lives to proclaim / What a Savior."

The CD does not stop with describing the immediate results of the cross in the lives of mankind, however. It finishes the story, reminding listeners that what God has sovereignly accomplished through the cross is not for this life only, but also for eternity. At several key points, the Na Band members lift their eyes to look to the future and to sing for joy at what they see. "God Over All" ends expectantly: "And on that day / When You come back to claim Your own / Yes, we will sing of Your love / Then we'll bow down / Praise You forever at Your throne / Yes, we will sing of Your love." "Thy Way, Not Mine" says simply that God's way "...leads / Right onward to Thy rest." "What a Savior" exults: "When He comes, our glorious King / All His ransomed home to bring / Then anew this song we'll sing / Hallelujah, hallelujah!" Past, present, and future are in God's hands. Man's sinfulness and total depravity (the past), the centrality of the cross and its significance in transforming people's lives (the present), and the hope of heaven ransomed sinners have (the future) are skillfully woven together by the thread of God's sovereignty, beautifully written about by centuries of hymn writers, and passionately sung about by the Na Band in Lu.

Lu's theological richness and lyrical beauty is equaled by its musical beauty. This beauty does not take the form one might expect, however. Reading the quoted lyrics--most of them majestic and old-fashioned and rather formal--might lead one to suspect that the musical accompaniment would be mainly comprised of organ and piano. Piano there is, but there are also drums--lots of them--plus electric guitar, bass, and unexpected appearances of accordion, cello, and various unusual "percussion elements." 2

Lead singer Devon Kauflin describes Lu's music as "unorthodox" and "organic." 3 The band intentionally used some equipment from the `80's, the `70's and even earlier in order to achieve "rich sounds" and "lots of hiss and noise." 3 The band also used some very creative--or perhaps bizarre--recording methods. Devon describes one of them: "One night around 12:30...[we] set up some large speakers in the men's bathroom and ran two microphones on each end of the bathroom and then blasted the drum tracks for `God Over All' into the bathroom and recorded them back into the studio. I then took all the noisy bathroom tile reverb drums and smashed them in a distressor/compressor. It's a noisy track--you can hear the air conditioning in your left speaker (hear the reverb-ed out drum sound). But I think it added a really cool effect to the song." 3

The band's musical vision for this project is "to be very purposeful in each note and sound that's put on this album, always seeking to ensure that in some way it's serving the truth that's being communicated." 2 About Lu specifically, they say: "We wanted this album to be very raw and communicate the passion that we have for the truth that we are singing about and living for." 2 The result is a thoughtfully edgy feel that may well be a new frontier in worship music style.

Some may say that the old-fashioned "hymn language" used in most of Lu's songs makes the CD undesirable. Devon answers this objection articulately: "I love to sing hymns. They communicate the old, old story in a way that makes you think about it. It's hard to just gloss over what's being said in a hymn. They [the hymn writers] don't take language lightly." 3 He and his brother have, however, taken many of the old hymns used in the project and re-vamped them to make them more "accessible and sing-able." 3 The indie-rock musical style also gives a feel of modernity to even the most antiquated words.

This leads to another objection, however. Aren't hymns and indie-rock incompatible? It is true that the two have not been combined very often, yet Lu compellingly (and humbly, of course), suggests that the combination should be attempted more often. The surprisingly successful marriage of diverse musical styles goes to show that the saying "opposites attract" holds true in more than just the areas of magnets and human relationships.

Some may still feel suspicious even after reading thus far; surely if the Na Band was any good, they wouldn't be so little known! This is a valid objection, but can be put to rest with a bit of explanation. The Na Band is not a "big-time" band. Its members do not spend the year touring; they serve year-round as husbands and fathers and worship leaders in a local church (the same type of church that puts on the Na Conference). The few days leading worship for the Na Conference each year is the only time when the band gets any publicity--so the Na Band is therefore not a household name...except for those who know how great their music is.

Since purchasing Lu in June, it has quickly become one of my favorite CD's, staying in my car's CD player for weeks at a time, and causing me to truly and joyfully worship God while driving around accomplishing otherwise mundane errands! Lu is a treasure, little-known but well-worth finding out about--a gutsy melding of musically passionate indie-rock with spiritually passionate, Gospel-centered hymns. It is evident that the writers and band members love to worship, and as I have worshipped with them, they have caused me to grow in my love for the Savior and for indie-rock music, in that order.

Sources Cited:
1 http://www.sovereigngracemusic.org/albums/category/nap_records/na_band_looked_upon
2 http://www.new.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=18672817577&id=13756837478&index=4
3 http://www.new.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=19310977577&id=13756837478&index=3

The songs on "Looked Upon" are without exception stellar, gospel-centered songs for corporate worship. I sang them as an attendee of Na 2008 and loved them all.

But listening to the CD was profoundly disappointing. In Lu, the Na Band seems to be sacrificing congregational accessibility and aestheticism in favor of a sparse, introspective style of indie rock that doesn't even do well in its own right, let alone on what is supposed to be a worship album.

Many previously upbeat, joyful-sounding songs have been changed into predominantly minor keys, giving songs we knew as joyful and worshipful into dark, depressing-sounding songs. When the Na Band was not able to place a song in a minor key, they seem to have put so many innovative musical or rhythmical elements, or just plain confusing chords, into the song that it's difficult to focus on the words.

Lu was arranged and produced in a way that likens it to most secular pop-alternative bands, in that your attention is drawn to the peculiar musical styles and not to the lyrics. Worshipping to this CD would be about as easy as worshipping to one of the recent Coldplay albums, except that Coldplay's chords agree with the melodies, which doesn't always happen on Lu. In most of the songs, most notably the well-known numbers "God Over All," "All I Have Is Christ," "My Lord, I Did Not Choose You," and "Ransomed," the band fights with the vocals so much that the song is almost painful to listen to. It would be difficult or impossible for someone with a typical musical understanding to worship God to this CD without being distracted by the music.

Worse yet, the congregational chord charts supplied with the CD do not simplify or standardize the chords to make the songs more accessible to church or small group worship leaders, such as the way they were played live at Na. Instead, the exact chords used on the CD are given. While the Na Band can sometimes make these dissonant melody/chord relationships work, a worship leader with a guitar probably won't be able to and is more likely to give up in confusion.

If you really don't care about the music, go ahead and get the CD. Otherwise, you might be better off waiting for the Na Band to release a congregational remix. They have done a great job with these songs live at Na and in singles meetings at their home church, Covenant Life. If Lu does not have an overwhelmingly enthusiastic reception, I would imagine and hope that they would consider re-releasing some of the songs with the music simplified to a more worshipful sound.

I reluctantly give this CD two stars because of the excellent lyrics. If you want to hear another version of "Nail My Glory," listen to the Caedmon's Call song "No More My God" which has the same words.

My top three songs are: 1.What a Mystery 2. God Over all 11. All I have is Christ.
I really enjoy this album. I wasn't able to find it on itunes any longer. I was hoping to to get it there. Oh well thank goodness for Amazon. What a great album!