gospelmind

My first thought, on hearing Derek Webb announce via Twitter that he was working on a worship album: Is this a joke?

My second thought I shared with a friend: Hah, I bet it will be instrumental. That would be fitting.

You see, I was aware from personal experience that singer/songwriter Webb, though a committed Christian, was not one to venture into writing a worship album. In 2006, we brought him out to play for our college retreat, and over lunch Webb was insistent that he was not a worship leader but an artist, and the distinction was important to him. Later, in a brief conversation with his wife, Sandra McCracken (a tremendous artist in her own right), I asked if Derek might come and play some of the rewritten hymns he performed on the Indelible Grace albums. She smiled but replied, "Derek doesn't really do worship."

So—fast-forward to December 2009, and what do we hear but plans for a worship album? I knew this was either an ironic joke, or that Webb, known for his incisive lyrics, was probably going to do something odd, like presenting us with a worship album with no words.

Well, I'm one for two. Feedback, which released on November 2, is no joke. And, except for the closing "Amen", Webb and collaborators McCracken and Josh Moore sing no words.

But that doesn't mean there aren't words. And that doesn't mean the album is a joke. Webb has called this album his most reverent and possibly most important, and I believe he is right.

Feedback is an instrumental meditation on the Lord's Prayer; broken into three movements that follow the main sections of the prayer, each track is titled with one of the petitions that comprise the prayer. As it turns out, this album signals not a novelty but a return to a forgotten tradition: the meditative singing or chanting of Scripture.

Webb may not be singing the text—but you are directly invited to do so yourself. Each song features a repeated motif, written to the rhythm of the petition for which the song is named. This became clear about halfway through my first listen, and Webb confirmed this intention in an interview. I want to suggest that, by offering you repeating melody, Webb is encouraging you to engage in worship. You, not he, are the primary worshipper and the one offering the prayer.

Now, I want to walk a fine line here: I want to say enough to make you give this album a chance, but little enough to let you wrestle with it yourself. There are surprises along the way which I want you to discover as you listen. So let me just say this:

1. There is a great need for this album. We are accustomed to neat worship packages, verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus. And we easily take appreciating someone else's worship product to mean that we have worshipped ourselves. But Webb is suggesting that it is your own consideration and encounter with God that matters, and that this takes time and attention. To spend nearly 40 minutes just rolling the Lord's Prayer over in our minds is a form of meditation and worship we desperately need. Webb is giving us a tremendous resource here.

2. This is not innovative, it is historical. For thousands of years Christians have chanted or slowly sung Scripture. In this case the music provides two important functions: music helps us pay attention (it turns out to be much easier to focus on the words for longer when there is a melody), and music gives a background tone to bring our hearts in line with the words. Rather than analytic and detached study, these songs promote heart-mind-soul encounter with Jesus' prayer. This is ancient wisdom, with digitized instrumentals.

3. This is not background music: Feedback requires attention. There is a lot going on, and it will challenge your perceptions. (My favorite moment, which I want to remain a surprise, begins by feeling offensive and ends as a perfect context for the second movement of the prayer). In fact, Webb commissioned two artists to create non-representational visual works for each song, to encourage the listener to engage all their attention to prayer. 4. Feedback is hauntingly beautiful. My personal favorite track, "Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil," captures both our fear in the darkness and the hope that we need not fear because God is with us. This is some of Webb's best melodic work, and longtime fans will recognize his presence. But he has managed to get himself out of the way and bring us to the text, to savor it and live in it. The experience is a reminder that worship is a beautiful, life-giving, personal/corporate mystery.

One thing, to me, is clear: Feedback is a departure from the tongue-in-cheek irony Webb is often known for. This is music in earnest. If he has communicated anything in this work, it is a passionate plea to pay attention to God, above all else. We can only hope that Christian worship leaders take notice and work equally hard to create art that invites thoughtful praise.