2007 National Youth Gathering Music Reviews:Leeland's Britrock Wash Sound May Get Washed Out Musically and Theologically

Part of a series of reviews of concerts at the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod National Youth Gathering, July 28-August 1, 2007

Leeland landed on stage at the LCMS National Youth Gathering with a Britrock wash much like the praise music of Hillsong United yet with enough rock smash. However, as a current darling of the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) scene, Leeland is precariously poised as band whose sound may easily be tweaked into something altogether different—if the band does not guard their sound and further define it themselves.

The core of Leeland’s sound as it is now comes inspired by U2, delirious?, and the David Crowder Band where the British sound melds into a jamming dance worship. This is Leeland is stronger, such as on “Save Your People, O Lord, O Lord,” a reinterpretation of a song by a pastor who made it up as a child in Africa. Leeland plays it in their own style while still letting the clap circle background be heard in its chant/march rhythm.

Elsewhere, “Can’t Stop” has a spin dance chorus of snare/high hat while the entire song is built on a pound-pound basic rhythm. “Sound of Melodies,” the title track of their 2006 debut album, delivers a big sound that then pulls back into the still, small spaces of the verses. “Tears of the Saints,” with its urgent call to missions (“Even churches have forsaken/ Love and mercy/ May we see this generation/ In its state of desperation/ For Your glory/ This is an emergency”), has the apocalyptic Britrock of Muse (also similar to the kick I hear in Pilot Speed and Strata), but Leeland’s approach lyrically and theologically is an “Inside the Church Eschatology” versus the “Invitation Into Eschatology” of other bands I heard at the National Youth Gathering (Remedy Drive, Stellar Kart). Leeland is music for those who already know whereas other bands (even Muse and Strata) are inviting you to contemplate the end of the world, explore the questions, and look for the hope.

“Yes, You Have” is the kind of praise and worship song a band could retire on since it surely will be licenses for use in many churches, youth groups, and other ministries, but still Leeland plays it with enough interesting intensity that we will need them as the original artist to continue proclaiming this Word themselves. Again, though, like Third Day whose first album had an edge since lost in the CCM smoothness, Leeland will not have that interesting intensity if they give up their creative license, fail to develop their sound into its next step uniquely, and ignore pop chart pressures make them generic.

Theologically, most of the songs are OK, and I could see using them in a worship setting, but lead singer Leeland Mooring’s stage talks reverse the Gospel into a human cooperation. He spoke about our dancing as inviting God’s presence. However, in a pure understanding of Gospel as a gift of God, we praise God when we recognize God’s presence that’s already there, just as we dance when we recognize the beat in the music. The beat is present; it’s a gift; our dancing is a response. God is present; that’s His gift; our worship is response of thanksgiving.

Another time Mooring said that our hunger for God attracts the presence of the Father, but that’s again reversed. The Father was among us in the world when we didn’t even know (or want to know) that we needed Him. He knew we were hungry, but it was His desire for us, His love, that brought Him to us.

Thanks to Leeland and Essential Records for the review CD.