Louder Than The Music

Jon Micah Sumrall - Faith & Family

Artist:

Jon Micah Sumrall

Title:

Faith & Family

Type:

Album

Released:

17 Feb 2015

LTTM Rating:

Your Rating:

Review

One of the great things about family is how it brings together lots of different people, with different tastes, and different outlooks on life, and how we can be happy and comfortable with those differences. Take my mum for example: she loves tea. I, however, can’t stand that tea stuff: it’s a bit too sweet and milky for my taste buds. Instead, for me, coffee is what a hot drink should be all about: strong, bitter, with a bit of a kick.

Jon Micah Sumrall’s Faith and Family is a collection of perfectly produced sounds that sweetly...
Read More One of the great things about family is how it brings together lots of different people, with different tastes, and different outlooks on life, and how we can be happy and comfortable with those differences. Take my mum for example: she loves tea. I, however, can’t stand that tea stuff: it’s a bit too sweet and milky for my taste buds. Instead, for me, coffee is what a hot drink should be all about: strong, bitter, with a bit of a kick.

Jon Micah Sumrall’s Faith and Family is a collection of perfectly produced sounds that sweetly pan from my left ear to my right. And that would be my main comment: it’s all nice and very pleasant, but no matter how much I cranked it up it never really cut through the border fence that lies between US and British music.

A good example is “Psalm 56”. King David’s words are translated into an accessible song format over a great bass and kick drum groove, with some choppy strings hinting at a sense of drama. Performance wise though, it all seemed “nice”. Personally I would expect to be shouting and screaming the words if I had been seized by the Philistines. “Marching On” takes on a similar theme of difficult battles, interestingly fighting them together and not alone as often happens in the loneliness of singer-songwriter land. Starting with a very effective marching drum rhythm, the song moves into a guitar and drum crunch combo, along the way encouraging us to “not run from evil or fear the unknown….soon we’ll be together”.

“King and Savior” is nice worship song territory, swiftly opening up into a radio-friendly power chorus where Jon plans to “shout from the mountains” that he’s been redeemed, and he’ll “sing in the valley”. “Soul on Fire” hints at the passion that is clearly inside Jon’s heart: acoustic guitars, strings, cymbals all coming together well, with a piano breaking it up before riding out onto the playout plains with cries of “Let it rise” over an percussive backing that provides one of the better moments of the album.

Lurking in the back row of the Faith and Family gathering, “Live Like You” is the song that got my attention. The tightly snapping groove, takes us from the pleasant side of the nice scale to the side where I squint my eyes and pull the internationally recognised face used when a funky groove is heard. “Nice” I say, nodding my head cooly. Jon asks questions, “Will I settle for the same, confess but never change?”, responding with a solution of “Don’t want to become a little stronger: I want the strength I see in you”. This is more like it Jon, we knew you had it in you son.

It’s quite clear from the album title that these are personal songs, and it wouldn’t be right pick over the lyrics, as words are a gift from God to express ourselves, but musically it would be have been nice to hear Jon push some more boundaries and push them a little further, and generally let himself go a little. There are hints of it, and I’m sure it would translate well to a live performance. Like I said, I’m not a fan of tea. But my mum loves it.

Review by Philip Aldis

LTTM Rating 3 Out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
Live Like You
Soul on Fire
King and Savior

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Kutless Frontman Jon Micah Sumrall To Release Solo Album 'Faith & Family'

Kutless' co-founder and frontman Jon Micah Sumrall has announced a personal side project, 'Faith & Family', that will be releasing on BEC Recordings on 24th February 2015. "This project has been a long time coming for me as…

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Jon Micah Sumrall - Faith & Family

Review

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Articles

Kutless Frontman Jon Micah Sumrall To Release Solo Album 'Faith & Family'