Over the past 12 years, Margaret Becker has recorded 10
\nremarkable albums. Generally in a career of that length there’s
\nbeen at least one clunker. Not for Becker. Not only has each album
\nbuilt upon the success of the next, but she’s never been afraid to
\nmix and match styles and genres as desired.<\/p>\n
For
\nWhat Kind Of Love<\/i>, Becker has taken elements from the
\nsuccess of her last two albums, 1998’s
\nFalling Forward<\/i> (orchestrations) and 1995’s
\nGrace<\/i> (synth-pop) and combined them in new, exciting, and
\narresting ways. When was the last time you put in a new disc and
\nfound yourself unable to go about your normal daily routine because
\nthe sounds, textures, and words of the songs playing had you
\nentranced?<\/p>\n
Such an album is
\nWhat Kind Of Love<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Allowing for Becker’s songwriting and singing talents, much of
\nthe credit for the auditory pleasures of this release, must go to
\nproducer Tedd Tjornhom, who came on board to shake things up with
\nFalling Forward<\/i> and thankfully has stuck around for the
\nfollow up. Tjornhom has deepened, and simplified, Becker’s sound –
\nwhile adding new sounds and textures she never tried before.<\/p>\n
And Becker’s voice, always an otherworldly, earthy, and sensuous
\npleasure, absolutely captivates. Her singing is as assured as I’ve
\never heard her, but more than that, it’s authoritative in way
\nthat’s non-demanding. She doesn’t have to sing with authority – she
\nsimply has it.<\/p>\n
In “Friend For Life” Becker sings to a friend in crisis that she
\nwants to introduce her to someone who will be a “friend for
\nlife.”<\/p>\n
“I want to be the one to tell you\/To tell it like it is\/To let
\nyou know the God of love will never leave your side.”<\/p>\n
But, the song realizes that a relationship with God cannot be
\nforced and the friend in pain is assured that belief in God is not
\na prerequisite of the friendship continuing.<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to force you to have faith\/And you know no matter
\nwhat you do\/I’m gonna love you anyway\/The only thing that
\nmatters\/Is that you know you’re not alone\/’Cause Love will stay
\nhere with you\/Long after I’m gone”<\/p>\n
The theme of the disc is finding the treasures in the darkness
\nas described in Isaiah 45:3. In other words, finding the good that
\ncomes out of the suffering we encounter in our lives. Becker calls
\nthe project “an upbeat album about suffering.”<\/p>\n
Margaret Becker, the songwriter, has also matured over the last
\ndecade or so. Whether writing alone or co-writing with the likes of
\nChris Eaton, Robbie Nevil, and Lowell Alexander, Becker takes
\nreality and infuses it with spirituality in a way many Christian
\nsongwriters can’t – or won’t.<\/p>\n
What do I mean? In the title song, Becker writes, with Eaton,
\nabout the marvel that the God of Heaven would choose the human
\nheart as His habitation – the same heart that scorned and murdered
\nHis son.<\/p>\n
“I’ll spend my lifetime wondering why\/The beauty of heaven chose
\nhere in my heart\/To pour out His perfect gift\/What kind of love is
\nthis?\/The beauty of heaven would pierce His own heart to give me
\nthis perfect gift.”<\/p>\n
The song is enhanced by the jazzy feel of the keyboards (Byron
\nHagan) that run in and out of the song.<\/p>\n
The song that best expresses the theme of “treasures in the
\ndarkness” is the gorgeous ballad “I Won’t Be Persuaded.” Written
\nwith Henk Pool, this song admits that humans cannot always make
\nsense out of why God, who could make all the hurt and suffering in
\nour lives stop, doesn’t. Why does He allow suffering when He could
\ntake it away?<\/p>\n
The song offers no answers to that question other than faith —
\nfaith in the One who has brought you through so many other
\ndifficulties — but faith is the only answer.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes I’m lost\/In the land of questioning\/And I rub
\ntogether timeless truths\/Like flint and stone in the rain\/And I
\ndon’t understand where You are in all this\/Still I wait and hope
\nand pray and wish.”<\/p>\n
That’s a lyric about suffering.<\/p>\n
The answer, if we can have one, is provided in the very next
\nsong, “Love By Your Side.” Sung from God’s point of view, the song
\nasks the listener if they really want to know God because if they
\ndo, He is always right there with them – even in the midst of
\nsuffering.<\/p>\n
“All this time I’ve been waiting\/I’ve been waiting in the
\nwings\/Hoping you would look at Me and let Me in because\/All your
\nlife\/I wanna be the one you run to\/I wanna stand by you\/In
\neverything you go through, tell me\/What will it take until you
\nbelieve in Me?\/’Cause I’m hoping that you’ll look My way.”<\/p>\n
It’s always tricky to try to write a song from God’s point of
\nview – kind of presumptuous if you know what I mean – but this
\nsimple mid-tempo pop song seems to capture the care, love, and
\nconcern of God tempered with His insistence that He will not force
\na relationship.<\/p>\n
“If you wanna feel love by your side\/If you’re looking for
\nsomeone you never seem to find\/Turn around and look in My
\neyes\/’Cause I’ve always been right here by your side.”<\/p>\n
Wow. If we can hang on to that thought with all the faith we
\nhave, however much that is, what a comfort it can be. Even – and
\nespecially – when we don’t see Him, God is right there if we just
\nlook for Him.<\/p>\n
Other highlights:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 A remake of the Staples Singers song, “Hope In A
\nHopeless World” that grooves righteously<\/p>\n
\u00b7 “One More Reason” written with Nevil, which is a
\nstraight-ahead pop song written as a love song to God.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 “All That’s Left” about being willing to be completely
\nbroken in order to move closer to Christ’s side.<\/p>\n
Becker is as fresh a voice in the CCM industry now as she was 12
\nyears ago when she first appeared on the scene with her
\nrock-oriented
\nNever For Nothing<\/i>. The fact that
\nNever For Nothing<\/i> is still a great listen, even though
\nBecker has moved far from that initial rock and roll posture, only
\nmakes the accomplishment of
\nWhat Kind Of Love<\/i> seem all the more significant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":25214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6221],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36419","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-margaret-becker","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36419"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36419"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}