You may remember Seth Davey from his previous band, the post-hardcore leaning Attalus. That was this reviewer's introduction. While he provided lyrics, vocals, and piano for that terrific outfit and their epic swan song album Into the Sea (2015), he returns here in 2024 with a solo piano-forward singer-songwriter approach. The kickstarted album is called Kingdom Rising and spans twelve all-new tracks. Three years in the making, the album bloomed from his time writing devotional thoughts for a monthly magazine. With each song, Davey zeroes on noticing the miraculous in the mundane moments of life. The thesis of the album is perfectly captured in the lyrics from the lead single "Love is the Higher Law," where he states, "To speak of Incarnation--of God with a face like ours/Of Love's disfiguration--till we look through the scars/The Kingdom is a mustard seed--too small to apprehend/It grows beneath our feet--and towers in the end."

With a prelude of gentle piano and the sounds of him digging and planting seeds, we are eased into a concept album with a largely unplugged sound. Piano takes the lead on each song, with Seth's earnest vocals often building and reaching emotional heights as a bed of cello and violin help him passionately communicate sentiments like some of my favorites from the chorus of "Love is the Higher Law." He reminds the listener, "Love is the higher law/Stronger than the grip of gravity/Even truer than the grave in front of me/ Even in the mundane I feel miracles/I could never make believe." Overall, the greatest strength of the record is the lyrics, as the album is littered with poetic turns of phrases that like Kingdom principles themselves will reveal deeper depth of meaning with each return to them.

Two other favorite lyrical moments are the lines from "In the Hearts of the Small" as he opines, "Is faith just a sigh that we heave in resistance?/The cry of a soul in a soulless existence?/Is hope just an opioid dulling the sadness?/And heaven a dream we construct in our madness?/Oh the thunderings of Marx and the lightnings of Freud!/ The hurricane winds Nietzsche hurled in the void!/But I've heard not a word through their stormy defiance Like the whisper of God that I hear in the silence." Further favorite lyrical moments are found in the songs "In the Hearts of the Small" and "Paradise in a Paradox." In the former, he reminds listeners of the hope that the here and not-yet Kingdom holds singing matter-of-factly, "I know some have said 'God is dead'/But is that the word that still resounds?/We don't claim a little seed is lost When it's rising underground." Then, in the latter song, "Paradise in a Paradox" where Davey wonders, "There's a stirring in the world we can't ignore/Like treasures in the deep that wash ashore/Signs of what the suffering is for/Is Heaven in our vision?/Does God compose His greatest melodies Through instruments that get so out of key?/Do Grace and Nature sing in harmony?/If we'd just stop and listen."

Musically, the album has an intentionally earthy feel to the production, as Seth wanted to match the lyrical subject matter and the tone. He does an excellent job utilizing the cello, violin, and other stringed instruments with an actual piano to accomplish this unplugged goal. Unfortunately, what is a strength of the album through the first half begins to work against it by the end. This lack of variety in instrumentation and structure holds the album back from higher marks. Additionally, with twelve tracks spanning over fifty minutes of runtime, many of the tracks suffer from a lack of length editing. This is felt deepest in the second half of the album as the primarily mid-tempo album begins to drag. "Paradise in a Paradox," "The Seed," and seven-plus minute closer "Kingdom Rising" all have excellent things to say, but at this spot in the album, it is a point of diminishing returns musically that cannot support the songs' runtimes.

Overall, Seth Davey has returned with one of the most arresting lyrical pieces of work of 2024. I would place him along with indie contemporary Benjamin Daniel as one of the best currently penning devotional songs, and Kingdom Rising is a fine album worth checking out. "Love is the Higher Law" is among my favorite songs of 2024, and stands a good chance at making my year-end Top 10 list. While the album length is not a dealbreaker by any means, it does mean, for this reviewer, that certain songs will be returned to more often than the album as a whole. For now, those songs for me will be "Love is the Higher Law," "The Sower," "In the Hearts of the Small," and "Fingerprints."

- Review date: 8/12/24, written by Josh Balogh of Jesusfreakhideout.com

 

 

 Record Label: None
 Album length: 12 tracks: 51 minutes 22 seconds
 Street Date: August 13, 2024
 Buy It: Bandcamp

1. Prelude (a planting) (1:21)
2. Love is the Higher Law (4:46)
3. The Sower (4:07)
4. In the Hearts of the Small (4:47)
5. Broken, Beautiful (3:13)
6. Fingerprints (3:25)
7. To Be More Like You (3:48)
8. Altars (4:06)
9. Processions (4:25)
10. Paradise in a Paradox (6:56)
11. The Seed (4:42)
12. Kingdom Rising (7:46)