Big Daddy Weave “Beautiful Offerings” Album Review

Prime Cuts: Beautiful Offerings, Come Sit Down, Good Good Father

When Big Daddy Weave named their much anticipated seventh studio album "Beautiful Offerings," it's not hyperbole. These songs are truly "beautiful" in the sense that they are contemplative, reflective, and deftly crafted with lyrics that scratches behind the superficial veneer.  And they are "offerings," in the sense that they are paeans of our heartfelt struggles and praises offered as worship to the Almighty God.  Rather than going the steely EDM gauze route, they have opted to let the acoustics of warmer instruments such as the acoustic guitar, banjos, and the gentle pull of strings pave a more tepid feel for what is Big Daddy Weave's most reflective record.  This is not to say that this album has no feet moving moments, it's just that ballads are at fore this time round.

Big Daddy Weave is one of the top artists in Christian music: they are one of the genre's biggest headlining artists, the second most played artist at Christian AC-Monitored radio in 2014 and the recipient of multiple industry awards and nominations, including: Dove Awards, K-LOVE Fan Awards, Billboard Music Awards and ASCAP Awards. With a brand-new studio album, entitled Beautiful Offerings, coming September 18, 2015, the band's latest and career best-selling album, Love Come To Life, celebrated four consecutive No. 1 singles along with recent news that "Redeemed" has been certified gold by the RIAA. Big Daddy Weave has career album sales of more than one million units. Formed in 2002, Big Daddy Weave is: Mike Weaver, Jay Weaver, Jeremy Redmon, Joe Shirk, and Brian Beihl.

With an orchestrated grandeur of strings leading the way, the title cut "Beautiful Offerings" is worship at its best.  Rather than coming to God with a puff-up chest, "Beautiful Offerings" finds a broken protagonist coming with his tatters to God for healing again.  "My Story," co-written by Mike Weaver and uber songwriter Jason Ingram, is a powerhouse testimony of God's transformative grace wrapped in the fabric of a true-to-life narrative.  "Lion and the Lamb" is perhaps this record's theological heavyweight.  It wrestles with the Biblical image of how the Savior is both the lion as well as the lamb; a thought that can blow our minds to nothing but worship.  Mike Weaver gets the most intimate with his emotionally nuanced rasp on the piano-led "Come Sit Down."

However, tedium does make a cameo two thirds into the record.  The predominance of overwrought ballads coming perhaps from a small cluster of songwriters has a way of making some of the songs sound similar especially when you are listening to the record for the first few times.  The songs are not ropey; it's just that some of the songs are easy for our concentration to slide.  However, if you do purchase the deluxe version the to-be classic "Good Good Father" gives some traction as it gets us singing along with the guys.  And deluxe version's penultimate track "Jesus I Believe" is a not-to-be-missed: it is honest, gripping, and so Christ-focused.  "Beautiful Offerings" may have its weak spots, but at least it lives up to its titular.  The majority of the songs are beautiful and a pleasing offering to Jesus.

 

 

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