Prime Cuts:  Run, Promises, Nothing Between Us

Anyone can be singer as long as you have a voice and you can hold a tune.  But not everyone can be a Godly artist.   It takes the fiery crucible of trails, tears and pain to mold one into a Godly vessel who can pedagogically communicate faith with holy gravitas and life changing effects within the three-minute confine of a song.  Though Sanctus Real has been in existence for the last sixteen years, it's not the years that have given them a spiritually depth often absent in many Christian bands.  It's their tenacity to ledge onto God with unwavering faith regardless of the harrowing glow of the flames of difficulties that has given them such a fearless and Godly passion in their music.  This five men band has had seen their shares of hardships over the years; and as lead singer Matt Hammit has testified these trials often escalate in the months eve to the release of their albums.  With "Run," the band's sixth studio album, it is no different.  Just while the songs were being written, their tour bus burnt down on the side of the road almost bankrupting the band.  Instead of throwing in the towel, this 8 time Dove award winners have decided to capture their experience in this collection of songs.  "Run" is by far their most cohesive album with the theme of God's grace in the midst of suffering running across threading these songs together. Though tomes of books have been written about theodicy (the justification of God in our sufferings) it has been a long while since we have an entire album of songs dealing with this theme.  And safe to say, Sanctus Real passes muster: they have dealt with the issue with strong Biblical acumen but more importantly they have invested their hearts, souls and experiences in each note making this album a comfort to listen to.

During their burgeoning years, Sanctus Real had an alternative rock edge to them making them more or less into a niche act.  But over the years, they have wisely incorporated more melodic pop hooks making themselves more accessible to a wider audience.  As a result, they have garnered for themselves eight number-one singles, seven top five radio songs and two GRAMMY nominations.  "Run," produced by Chris Stevens (Shawn McDonald and TobyMac), Jason Ingram (Brandon Heath and Todd Agnew) and Seth Mosley (Newsboys and Mark Schultz) continues in the same direction.  Talking about accessibility, the title cut "Run" is the personification of catchiness.  With an addictive chorus and a sobering call to "run, run, run into the arms of love" this is a Godly tune set with speedy legs running into our memories and hearts.  Lead single "Promises" is an anthemic pop exhortation to turn to God's word when we suffer.  The song's ethos is further bolstered with Scriptural verses coming from Romans 8 intricately woven deftly into the song.  Suffering dons a domestic mask with "Commitment"-a song that deals with bringing one's marital discord before God as two souls re-committed to Christ again. 

Sanctus Real goes deeper to deal with the root of our mistrust of God in our pains: idolatry.  Often we would rather seek the comforting arms of our idols (be it our friends, money, food and so forth) than Christ himself.  "Nothing Between Us" is a worshipful cry to God for Him to thrash these idols.  Musically, "Nothing Between Us" is of note for its use of more country instruments making it stand out in a guitar-drum driven album.  Also worthy of mention is that Matt Hemmitt brings out a joyful desperation and engaging passion to the upbeat "Pray."  The high intensity that Hemmitt brings to the songs is both a strength and a weakness.  Though it is wonderful for Hemmitt to be engaging but over the course of the entire course of the album it can lose its rhetoric effect.  Further, the tempo hardly varies over the 12 songs.  Though the tempo slows a little with "Picture of Grace," it gets busy again when the chorus hits.  At the end of the day such intensity (wonderful as it is) backfires.  One would wish for more piano ballads or at least a couple of tracks that veer from their formulaic pop-rock format.

The CD itself comes in two formats: the regular as well as the deluxe companion.  Save for the matter of a few dollars, the deluxe version is recommendable as it features 4 newly written songs.  They would better serve if they were dispersed into the album proper.  These songs are acoustically driven and they would have added variety to the disc.  Also, on the deluxe version there is an electronic remix version of the title cut "Run."  If you think the album version is great, the remix is superior-bouncy, danceable and so catchy.  In life there will be troubles and sufferings, Sanctus Real's "Run" is Godly call for us to run to the arms of Jesus.  And with this album, the members of Sanctus Real via their songs will become our cloud of witnesses cheering us onwards in our run towards the Son of God.