I first came in contact with Jeremy Casella’s music while I was an M.Div. student at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. My wife and I went to see Indelible Grace perform. Jeremy was not only touring with them but performing solo acoustic sets. I still remember (3 or 4 years later) some of the songs he performed though it were the first time I’d heard his music. Though he was well within the folk/singer-songwriter vein, he stood out with an individuality that caused me to seek out his albums. Since then I’ve followed the ups and downs of his career, his signing and dropping from a label, and I’ve even had the pleasure of having him as a guest in my home (so this is not an unbiased review).

After wrestling with a major label and recording an unreleased album, Jeremy has independently released his latest album, Recovery. I admit that I’m often hesitant when I read reviews that use phrases such as “groundbreaking” or “artistic leap,” but I’m going to apply those descriptors to Jeremy’s new album. Up to this point, he has worked well in a singer-songwriter mold with folk influences. His unreleased album The Innocence Fires hinted at larger pop influences with the inclusion of the Blind Boys of Alabama, but Recovery takes the artistic leap previously only hinted at.

I’ve lived with this album for a couple of weeks before trying to write anything and the first thing that struck me was an overall feel of hope. The presence of strings and horns adds a warm depth that takes Jeremy well beyond the folk influence. His use of electronics is understated and tasteful rather than distracting. Splashes of static interweave horn melodies and string accompaniments. None of it is simply an add-on, every piece has been lovingly woven together by an artist truly coming into his own. The album occupies the sonic landscape that many people wish Wilco had remained in after Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Pop influences from the Beach Boys and Beatles to Radiohead coexist with folk and even classical elements, all mixed with nods to Neil Young. Yet it all works as a coherent artistic statement rather than a mish-mash of random experimentation.

Lyrically, the album is Jeremy’s least “explicitly” Christian, though the album begins and ends in the hands of God and His presence is always a constant. Jeremy mines the difficult times of life without being cliché and relationships play heavy in the album’s themes, not only the difficult endings (Well I read the note you left me; Love is stronger than the ways we say goodbye) but hopeful beginnings (I was fine to leave it all undone Until I looked in the eyes of my own son And everything was born again…) and the everyday struggles of love (our love burns brighter than this dark cloud). Through it all runs the thread of hope and redemption carried musically by the soaring strings and horns.

Though some might want more “explicitly Christian” content, Jeremy presents Truth and Beauty as a coherent whole and the hope of Christ certainly remains the constant through all of the album’s explorations of some of life’s dark times. Jeremy applies the Gospel to many of life’s most poignant moments and for that he must be thanked. Biblical allusions abound (I’m lonely like Adam and I’m angry like Cain).

Musically the album has natural hooks and gradually build and never seem forced. The strings and horns function as an organic part of the music, carrying you along rather than feeling tacked on as a gimmick while the electronics add depth and texture. Jeremy’s melodies and lyrics are strong throughout and work together, making this truly an album rather than a mere collection of songs. The album uses many inventive percussion elements that work to enhance the tone rather than distract.

Jeremy has created an album that is immediately familiar. I don’t mean that you’ll feel as if you’ve already heard what he has to say. Instead, the album feels comfortable, warm and inviting, like an old friend. Yet, like many great albums, it reveals more with every listen, whether it be a hidden melody, or a turn of the phrase, this is an album that is rich in detail but not overwhelming; comfortable but not cliché�. Jeremy has taken a great artistic leap and I highly recommend making that jump with him.

• Visit Jeremy official website
• Read the lyrics
• Stream the entire album
• Purchase the album for you and your friends