It was time, I decided, to write about God's goodness. My own life seemed to be overflowing with evidence of it. And I knew these songs would come quickly, easily, and in abundance. In fact, I imagined I would probably have to stop myself from writing TOO much. After all, there is so much to say... such a deep well from which to draw, when the goodness and grace of God are the topics at hand. Piece of cake, I thought, pencil poised...

I was wrong.

These words are an excerpt from the liner notes of Nichole Nordeman's latest album, Woven & Spun. Known in the past for being a very confessional and questioning songwriter, Nichole faced a strange challenge when penning tunes for her new album, a challenge that is honestly detailed in the first page you see upon opening the jewel case. Ironically, despite a string of positive events in her life such as her recent marriage and winning an unexpected Dove Award for Female Vocalist of the Year, she still found the good side of her relationship with God harder to write about than the difficult side. It came as a bit of a surprise even to me, since it seems most artists in CCM-land churn out recycled songs year after year that reiterate "God is good" without really elaborating on what that means to them personally. But then, Nichole is an artist of a different caliber. While her style definitely falls into the category of AC-friendly inspirational pop, her lyrics have always tried to dig a little harder. So I can see why her conscience wouldn't let her take the easy way out on this one.

Whatever the case, Nichole's struggle paid off, because there are some poignant gems within Woven & Spun's 12 tracks. It's not what you'd expect from a "happy" album, given that the overall pace of the disc is slower than her other two, and the brash, I'm-gonna-knock-on-God's-door-until-I-get-an-answer attitude found on her debut Wide Eyed has given way to a meeker approach. Even if I miss the edgier and sometimes jazzier nature of that album, I've gotta admit that Nichole pulls off glossy pop with class.

More importantly, she pulls it off with humility. A recent article she wrote for Grassroots Music can testify to that. While she enjoys challenging herself to express her love for God creatively, she doesn't want to be known as someone who played the game and outdid her musical peers. She doesn't want to be part of that elite club that writes "deeper" stuff than the rest. I guess that's a healthy attitude to take on after you've won a prestigious award that you honestly thought you didn't have a shot at. Her humility definitely shows in this set of songs, which I would normally say is commendable... except that you can only have so many people commend you for being humble before you're tempted to be proud of it. Humility is an odd thing in that way - when you think you've got it, you don't.

Anyway, uncovering little theological nuances and making sense of them to the average Joe Christian isn't my job - it's Nichole's. So I'll let one of my favorite piano-playing songstresses get on with her show.

Holy
How many deaths did I die
Before I was awakened to new life again?
Ironically, despite this being Nichole's mellowest album, it opens in a more upbeat manner than her last two discs did, with this runaway single. No doubt the sheer catchiness of this tune is responsible for the heavy radio play it's been getting, but I think there's more to an that. Using a slightly darker melody than the mildly annoying "Lookin' at You (Lookin' at Me)" from This Mystery (which is the only upbeat Nichole song I can really refer to thus far), this song does a great job of integrating Nichole's piano into a pop/rock setting without drowning it out in a wash of guitars and synths and such. Lyrically speaking, this song is about as humbling as anything you're gonna find on Christian radio, very clearly spelling out Nichole's plans and dreams and ideas and how these must play second fiddle to simple obedience. Nichole knows that what God wants most from her is "Only me, on my knees, singing holy." It's not singing holy because God gave her a great marriage or fulfilled some other dream of hers - though I'm sure in many cases He has. It's just singing holy because that's what God is. It's worship that has nothing to do with Nichole's tiny world. As such, it becomes an unlikely but appropriate worship song in an age when too many songwriters are stringing together personal wish lists and cliche choruses and labeling them as modern worship albums.

Mercies New
So I would understand if You would make me pay
I would understand, lying in the bed I made again...
The second track will probably throw you for a loop at first, since it seems to kill the momentum with its unassuming mid-tempo beat and synthesizer line. Nichole still puts enough of her understated charm into it to make it worthwhile, recounting unconfessed sins in much the same way she used to recount seemingly unanswered prayers, and then expressing her surprise at a God who doesn't make her pay a penance for each of these trespasses. It may not be one of Nichole's most musically interesting songs, and even the chorus of "Your mercies are new every morning, so let me wake with the dawn" seems like we've heard it somewhere before, and she certainly could have done a lot more with the vocal help of Bebo Norman and Nirva Dorsaint than she did, but give the song a chance and it will sink in. When the backing instruments finally build up a little more around the bridge and then the song slides back into the chorus after a slick key change, it's easier to see the sun breaking through the grey morning clouds and shedding a little light on what seemed to be just an "okay" song.

Healed
We stutter and we stammer 'til You say us
A symphony of chaos 'til You play us...
A lovely, delicate piano melody leads off one of Nichole's most poetic tracks to date (and she's had a lot of 'em). Producer Mark Hammond utilizes a watery, echoing sound during the first verse and chorus, which draws more attention to the lyrics and makes Nichole sound a lot like Michelle Tumes. She returns to her usual self once the momentum builds, but those lyrics still stand out because they follow a model that works best for her - taking one lyrical idea and using it as a template for several clever lines during each verse. Lines such as "Vaguely unimagined 'til You dream us" and "Orphaned and abandoned 'til You name us" give more credibility for the use of a more common phrase during the chorus: "By Your wounds we are healed". That's what I love about Nichole - she labors over songs that cover territory a million other Christian artists have covered, and does her very best to express it in a way that she hasn't heard it expressed before, while at the same time respecting that God has heard it all and her heart still matters more than her wit. That's a tough balance to pull off.

Legacy
You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all the who's-who's and so-and-so's
That used to be the best at such-and-such...
This track, which amusingly begins and ends with the line, "I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me", is about as whimsical as Nichole gets on this album (which is to say, not very). It's basically her way of saying, "So I guess I won this big award, and now I'm praying it doesn't go to my head." But she says it in a way that goes beyond the usual "Woe is me, now I'm a celebrity" angst and allows us all to relate. She recognizes that the accolades that a person may win in this lifetime are nothing but a pile of dirt that "Moth and rust, thieves and such will soon destroy". All she wants is to point the way to her Savior, and she's questioning what the point of it all would be if not for that. The music is upbeat but restrained at the same time, using a drum loop to carry most of the song, but bringing in real drums and a little bit of folksier instrumentation later. It's a good blend, even if everything but the piano and drums pretty much stays in the background.

I Am
And when I was weak, unable to speak
Still I could call You by name
And I said, "Elbow Healer, Superhero, come if You can..."
Remember the lovely ballad "Every Season" from This Mystery? The one that was nominated for Song of the Year even though it got very little, if any, radio play? I thought that was Nichole's best song, and there was no way she would ever top it. But I was wrong. For sure, this one builds on a similar formula, with little other than Nichole's piano and the obligatory symphonic backdrop to drive it along, and in place of the four seasons, the verses describe different phases in Nichole's life. Even though she goes to a level of specificity that has her reminiscing about taking a spill on her bicycle as a little kid or having an unfair curfew as a teenager, the song always comes full circle during each chorus, as she recalls the names she had for God during those times. Such unorthodox names as "Superhero" and "Secret Keeper" later become more common names such as "Shepherd, Savior, Pasture Maker", and with each request for God to be with her, God's response is the same: "I Am". It's simple, but it says so much, being the way that God referred to Himself many times in the Bible. It's as if to say, "Everything You need and are asking me to provide, I already have". Simply in acknowledging that God is there, and that He knew her name before she was "woven and spun", there's an immense love and intimacy communicated, yet never stated. I had heard the song many times before actually buying the CD, and maybe it was just the setting in which I was listening to it (I was taking an early morning walk around my girlfriend's neighborhood in Hawaii after a sleepless night), but Nichole's last verse, where she describes the final stage of life - dying and moving on to be with God for eternity - really made me tear up that day, and still gets me every time I hear the song. It's so specific to her life, and yet so easy to relate to because I can look back and see God there during the ups and downs over the course of my life so far. Once again, a simple concept eloquently stated.

In Your Eyes
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive...
Now here's a curveball that I wouldn't have expected - Nichole, with the assistance of producer Charlie Peacock, attempts a cover of Peter Gabriel's classic from the mid-80's. To say that Nichole is faithful to the original is a bit of an understatement - it's a piece of cake to jump right in and sing along if you've known and loved the original for years, since she follows the tune and rhythm to a T. She may not utilize the world-beat percussion or ethnic background vocals the Peter Gabriel version is known for, and the song lags slightly as a result, but it's still an admirable attempt. I've always enjoyed the song, and it's always great to have fodder for those people who think all "secular" songs are evil - God is never explicitly named in the song, but it fits perfectly within the context of the album that you'd naturally assume it was written about God if you didn't know the original. (And perhaps even the original song was - who knows?) Though the background vocals that repeat the song's title during the chorus sometimes drop out and leave the song feeling a little weak, and the whole thing meekly fades out after the second chorus (likely to keep the song short enough to play on the radio), it's an enjoyable cover and it adapts well to Nichole's piano-pop style, even if I wish she and Charlie had a been a little more daring with it. It blows Jill Parr's techno-pop rendition out of the water, that's for sure.

Even Then
So I put aside the masquerade
And admit that I am not okay
Which may not be the thing to say...
The album's second half opens with a pleasant acoustic guitar riff that sadly gets buried between a somewhat plodding drum beat. While I appreciate the attempt at having more "live band" instrumentation on many of these songs, I kind of feel like drums should get out of the way if they're not doing anything energetic or otherwise interesting. That complaint aside, "Even Then" is an interesting song about Nichole's expectations and how she is sometimes guilty of losing sleep over the pressure to stay in the spotlight. It's almost as if this song embodies her fears about the album not doing well. Her response to this fear, though, is a very bold chorus that should lay any doubts about her priorities: "Thank You Jesus, even when You see us just as we are." It may seem counterintuitive to be thankful for having your underlying messes exposed, but when you think about it, that's what the Gospel is - Jesus knows what we're all hiding and loves us anyway. And keeping this in perspective allows Nichole to be honest and stop worrying so much about what people will think of her - whether her lyrics are profound or cheesy, or her songs are too slow, or whether she should have used this drum beat in a song instead of that one. I wish more Christian artists had that attitude.

Never Loved You More
Never mind moderation, You exceed my expectations...
This is one of those songs that just makes you go, "What the heck happened here?" After a brief guitar intro, an unwelcome and rather low-budget sounding programmed beat kicks in, joined by a perky bass line that sounds ripped straight off of a children's album. The music alone is embarrassing to listen to on this track - not to the level of a Carman song, but still irritating - and the lyrics don't help matters much. Suddenly, our poetic songstress is churning out cliche lines about counting the stars way up past Mars and cups filling up and running over, and other Sunday School type metaphors for God's overwhelming love. I see her point, and there's nothing wrong with a purely happy song, but Nichole just doesn't do the "perky" thing well. The song gets a little more interesting when real drums and guitar take over later, but it's one of those cases of too little, too late. Probably Nichole's worst track to date. Perhaps this was an example of the sorts of songs Nichole thought would be easy to write, and she just left it there because Sparrow pressured her to include a fast song in the back half of the album. It'll certainly be a humbling experience for her if this song ever makes it to radio. Then again, what am I saying... if every Point of Grace single goes #1, then this probably will too. Sheesh. I expect better when Charlie Peacock is at the helm.

Take Me As I Am
To wear wisdom like Solomon's robe
For the patience and perspective of a man like Job...
A nice enough piano riff takes us out of the previous song and into more easily digestible territory - it's another mid-tempo tune that struggles to stand out on a medium-paced album. (Especially since its title includes the title of another song on the album - that always causes me to link the two songs together in my mind and forget about the less interesting of the two.) It's not a bad song by any means - it's actually a modern take on the hymn "Just As I Am", in some ways. Nichole describes the super-Christian that she wishes she was, but realizes she can never be that and thanks God for accepting her as she is, with all her flaws and such. It's a nice concept, and a few lines such as "Never mind the silver lining 'cause the clouds are fine" reflect a lesson that she is learning through all of this - to take what God gives her just as it is as well, and stop expecting everything to be happy and fuzzy and unchallenging - a concept which drives much of the material on this album. Two things that work against this song, though, are an Alanis-like tendency to jam too many words into the verses, and the alarming similarity between this song's chorus and the last one - the line "I never could be good enough" starts high and almost sounds like she's about to sing "I have never loved You more" one more time. Wouldn't be a problem if track #8 had been axed in favor of something different.

Doxology
Here, Nichole covers a traditional tune many of us who grew up in churches will remember - "Praise God from whom all blessings flow/Praise Him all creatures here below/Praise Him above, ye heavenly host/Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost". She signs it acapella and uses it as a brief intro to the next track.

My Offering
Give the rocks and stones voices of their own
If we forget to sing praises to our King...
Though this is another track that seems slow and dull at first, it's actually quite lovely - it's just got those uninteresting drums working against it, and might have worked better with a more delicate approach. Here, Nichole uses a few more clever metaphors, describing herself as a valley and as a cloud in the sky, small pieces of nature doing their part to reflect the glory of God. It's one of those songs that doesn't demand attention, but manages to grab it when you're not expecting it to - for me, there was something about watching the morning sun reflect off of the passing clouds as Nichole sang "Open up the heavens, open up the skies" that really grabbed me. I've always loved that Bible verse about how the rocks and trees will cry out if humans ever cease to praise God, and here, Nichole seems to accept that as a blessing, that when she falls silent, the Earth around her will speak the words that she cannot find. There's a moment during the bridge where she just seems to hit upon the perfect chord sequence - I can't quite explain it, but it's beautiful, and I wish she had chosen to linger there a little longer. But the ending of the song is still lovely, subtly bringing in a few lines from the hymn "All Creatures of Our God and King", which is an interesting reference to the City on a Hill sequel she participated in earlier in the year.

Gratitude
A lesson learned, to hunger after You
That a starry sky offers a better view
If no roof is overhead, and if we never taste that bread...
It's a no-brainer that a good Nichole album is going to end with a classic piano ballad. After "River God" and "Every Season", you can't blame Nichole for adhering to this pattern. It would seem that after the stunning "I Am" and several other slower songs, Nichole might have lost some of the wind in her sails, but never fear - she finishes this album up in style. This time around she changes things up by employing a 3/4 rhythm, but the lyrical style is more of the tried and true theme-and-variation that fits her so perfectly. This song is her prayer to God for various provisions that she needs from Him - rain, bread, a roof over her head, etc. The twist here, though, is almost heart-wrenching - Nichole longs for a commitment that runs so deep that she will have gratitude even when God does not provide these things. The song really had to sneak up on me, but after I realized what a profound request she was making, the song has refused to let go of me. It's become one of my prayers, in a sense. I love how her last request is "Jesus, grant us peace", and even with the absence of that, in this world or terrorists and nuclear weapons, she finds something to be grateful for, because it's these times of need that bring her closer to God. It's a similar theme to "Bring It On" by Steven Curtis Chapman, and just about as poignant even if the music is much more subtle. I love how it ends the album on a note of tension that dissipates as her request is sent up into the sky... no guarantee she'll get the answer she wants, but there's still a contentness about the whole thing.

Despite a few songs that could have been executed better, a few places where the tempo lags, leading less discerning ears to label this album as "boring", and one song that's just plain difficult to swallow, I think Nichole's got a great album on her hands here. It's not as solid as Wide Eyed, but it definitely surpasses This Mystery, which was a pleasant enough album but didn't really stick in my memory. As much as I miss Nichole's old approach to songwriting, this new one goes beyond something that I relate to and challenges me to a type of faith that I wish I related to. And that's exactly what I want more of out of the CCM world.

ALBUM WORTH:
Holy $2
Mercies New $1
Healed $1.50
Legacy $1.50
I Am $2
In Your Eyes $1.50
Even Then $1
Never Loved You More -$.50
Take Me As I Am $1
Doxology $.50
My Offering $2
Gratitude $2
TOTAL: $15.50

Website: http://www.nicholenordeman.com

Great Music to Play While: On your knees, singing "Holy".

Recommended: Yes