Revive! — A Patriotic Music Review
Since I didn't own the album, I couldn't take a photo of it like I would for a book recommendation, so this is a photo that I think somewhat shows the ideas posed in the album. Original image by Matteo Modica on Unsplash.
Woohoo! I finally get to recommend some music! Yeah, I know I technically could have done this whenever I wanted to, but I did say I was only gonna post one recommendation a month, and besides, the album I'm reviewing goes pretty well with the patriotic spirit that embodies July.
A while back when I was listening to my Spotify recommendations, I came across some artists I hadn't listened to before: Caleb and Katie Garraway. Upon listening to them, I found I really enjoyed them, especially since they had recorded songs by some other artists I loved. While scrolling through their albums on Spotify, I found one that really piqued my interest.
When I first started listening to the album Revive!, I think I was expecting it to be along the lines of other patriotic albums. You know, the ones that play a bunch of patriotic songs like "The National Anthem," and "God Bless the USA," and maybe if it's a Christian artist you might end up with "Amazing Grace," and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." But Revive! wasn't like that. To be sure, it does have "The National Anthem," on it, but the focus of the album isn't mainly on patriotism.
Instead, the music on Revive!, weaves a picture of the way in which Christians should be focused on bringing revival to our nation. From normal patriotic songs like "America, America," to a newer tune to an old hymn entitled "Revive Us Again," to missions songs like "A World We Never Touch," the music shows the listener how to not only remember the red, white, and blue of America, but also to remember where we came from and how we should respond.
As Independence Day draws near, we tend to look forward to fireworks and cookouts, but this patriotic music leads us in a different direction: one of prayer and evangelism. Christians need to reach out to their country and pray for it, and I believe that Caleb and Katie Garraway have truly given a great example of this in Revive!.
As July 4th gets closer, I would encourage you to listen to this album! The music is uplifting, patriotic, and somber all rolled into one. And the message contained in each of the songs is something we should really keep in mind as we celebrate our country this month.
If you want to check out the album, you can click one of the buttons below!
(If you do listen, I would love to here what you think in the comments!)
You can check out Caleb and Katie Garraway's biography here and find out about their outreach, Remnant Missions, here.