Cedars, October 2018

October 2018 16 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Music Review: ‘Look Up Child’ Cedars looks at Lauren Daigle’s newest album by Lauren McGuire “L ook Up Child” has been a long awaited follow-up to Lauren Daigle’s debut album “How Can It Be,” released in 2015. Daigle’s voice resembles Adele’s: an impressive range mixed with soulful influences. “Still Rolling Stones” is the engaging opener to the album, a track whose beat resembles that of Adele’s hit “Rumor Has It.” Her gap in album releases mirrors the ap- proach of Adele, taking a few years in between releases of music to deal with things in her personal life. She is now known on social media as the “Christian Adele.” Daigle’s album focuses a lot on the joy, love and hope that comes from knowing Christ. Her lyrics capture a mod- ern emotion while also maintaining a solid theology, some- thing that sets her apart from other artists. The purpose of her album was to create music that is compelling and invit- ing to everyone, even those who aren’t Christian. She does this as she expresses the freedom found in Christ, an idea that is highlighted in her song “Losing My Religion.” She sings that, instead of being an “actor on a stage,” she describes the freedom that comes when she no longer “performs out of fear” and how God’s love is greater than the love that could come from anyone else. Her song “Remember” highlights the goodness of God and His faith- fulness. The title “Love Like This” poetically describes how Christ completely contrasts mankind, a warm song that in- vites the listener into the presence of Jesus. “You Say” is one of the most notable songs from the album. Daigle sings about the importance of who God says she is and how that impacts her life. Not only is the song catchy, but it also has lyrics that speak to the identity of Christians. This song reminds her listeners that they are loved, strong and held because of Christ, and because of that, they can give Him everything and trust Him fully. The title track “Look Up Child” includes a chorus that says “I hear you say, look up child.” The repetition between the two songs ties the entire album together well. The album mixes feelings, earthiness and emotional lyrics of worship. The albumbegins with intensely rhythmed songs and then by the end of the album, “Inevitable” and “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” turn to mellow songs that may put one to sleep with soothing lyrics. There are a few songs such as “Love Like This” which effectively mix both elements together and others like “You Say” that are completely soulful. Daigle completely hit the mark when attempting to create not just a worship album, but something that invites people in to experience love, hope and joy in Christ. Lauren McGuire is a sophomore professional writing and information design major and writer for Cedars. She loves birthday cake ice cream, watching “The Office” and late- night runs. by Callahan Jones L auren Daigle’s newest project, “Look Up Child,” is a lyrically worshipful 51 minutes with about eight min- utes of unique musical concepts. We find all eight of these minutes of the two styles on the album in the first two songs, “Still Rolling Stones” and “Rescue.” Past these tracks, the rest of the album falls flat. “Still Rolling Stones” quickly reveals itself to be a pep- py worship song driven by large piano chords and some hype call-and-response with backup singers. It focuses on an optimistic message: no matter what is happening, we know that God is still working and saving people from their sin. “Rescue” is a slow, plodding affair with methodical and emotional strings. The only other instrument present is a piano, which makes up the melodic backbone of the track. There are also background singers on this song, which come in as a chorus whenever something needs to be emphasized. The message is one of salvation, from Christ’s perspective. In this way, Daigle reminds us that God is always there to save us and always hears our prayers. Both of these songs have quality, worshipful lyrics and are, at points, sonically interesting as well. However, the rest of the songs on the album follow one of the two musical pat- terns set by these songs, either hip and upbeat like “Still Roll- ings Stones” or deliberate and emotional like “Rescue.” Some break this mold … by moving slowly through the verses and being hype through the choruses and maybe the bridge. “You Say,” the breakout radio hit, easily falls into the second camp, being a string-and-voice-driven slow mov- er. “Look Up Child” is a quick moving, optimistic song that turns away from its riffing guitars and conga-driven beat for the bridge, where it slows down a bit, before returning to the chorus and its upbeat mood. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” a remake of the classic hymn, is perhaps the most interesting song on the album from a musical perspective, turning into a more jazzy tune. It does this through the use of a faster tempo, quick guitar hits and interesting chords and riffs from the piano. Daigle also takes refreshing freedom with the traditional rhythm of the lyrics. With all that said about the music, at its core, Daigle’s album is lyrically correct in all the right ways. In most of the songs on “Look Up Child,” she is either contrite about sin, or praising God for what He’s done on Earth or singing about how and why Christians have the hope that we do. It is a worship album, and it succeeds at doing just that, being worshipful. The two musical styles present will do well to reach to a large part of the audience that already en- joys contemporary Christian music. But that just leads me to call this album what I think it is: lazy. It pairs powerful lyrics with mainly simple string and piano parts to incite emotion and make it easily digestible. A worship song is made up of two parts, the lyrics and the music that is underneath those lyrics. Unfortunately, Daigle’s “Look Up Child” only brings half of this to the ta- ble. Callahan Jones is a senior journalism major and the Digi- tal and Design editor for Cedars. In his free time, he enjoys making coffee, being overly critical about music and play- ing games with friends.