Jimmy Needham Embraces 'Vice & Virtue' With New Album
Jimmy Needham returns on May 4th with his seventh studio album, 'Vice & Virtue'. The new collection of songs, produced by Will Hunt (Crowder, Shane & Shane), marks Needham's first project to be released by his new label, Platinum Pop Records.
As he commenced writing for his latest album, 'Vice & Virtue', the veteran artist found himself in the midst of an unnerving internal crisis - an overwhelming sense that he just wasn't measuring up spiritually.
"I would be in my writing room and feeling like it was the end of the world," says Needham.
But as the songwriter and R&B vocalist peeled back layer after layer of sorrow he just couldn’t shake, a few rays of light began appearing - most prominently through a study on the book of Galatians by well-known pastor Timothy Keller.
One quote by Keller - whom Needham thanks in the 'Vice & Virtue' liner notes - devastated him: "Irreligious people repent of nothing. Religious people repent of their sin. But Christians repent of their righteousness." And it got the 29-year-old asking uncomfortable questions.
"My nicety gave me a sense of worth and value," Needham confesses. "But that's really the opposite of the gospel. We bring nothing to the table except sin and brokenness. Through all of my religious efforts, I was actually fleeing from the cross."
"My fans are nice people," Needham observes. "They don't cheat on their taxes. They hold doors for strangers. They say their prayers." But the label loved it.
"I don't feel cynical," he says. "I love the church; I wrote this album for the church. And it seems most appropriate for the body of Christ."
