Album Rating: 4.0

Just in case anyone's curious, he's amazing live. Played mostly his solo stuff but did play A Song for Milly Michaelson, Come All Ye Weary, and finished the show with Words in the Water which was phenomenal

Album Rating: 3.5

Not sure how the rating will go for me but I'm not disappointed at all. It's a fun and relaxing record all in all.

Album Rating: 4.0

Sounds like he nailed it with the Thrice choices, brady.

Album Rating: 3.5

The lyrics are rapidly becoming my favorite part of this album. It just wish it didn't feel so rushed. The Water and the Blood had the same problem. Songs never stopped to breathe.

Album Rating: 4.0

Yeah the Thrice choices were great. I went crazy when he said he was finishing it with Words in the Water

Album Rating: 4.0

He made some interesting choices with Milly Michaelson, adding harmonica and making the song a lot more upbeat

the dude from thrice has a worship album? damn, I really have to check that out

Idk if this would really be my thing but I will have to look into it just given the pedigree

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

^I am not a religous person. if you aren't offended by jesus loving lyrics, the music on that album is fantastic.

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

^what the fuck were you smoking? That album was utter shit on a musical level. This isn't really any better

I really don't understand how someone can be offended by religious lyrics. I listen to music that promotes atheism, and I don't get mad about it. I listen to music that promotes religions other than my own, and once again I'm perfectly unaffected. Why do some people insist on the insinuation that religious music is offensive? There are very few instances in which I could imagine this being true, i.e. if you were sexually assaulted by a priest or something but I mean otherwise holy shit people just learn to live with differing opinions.

What if I was sexually assaulted by Dustin Kensrue?

Then consider yourself lucky

Album Rating: 4.0

If he did it whilst he was a pastor then you hit the jackpot.

Album Rating: 3.0

a lot of atheists have a very utilitarian approach towards religion: religion has caused more problems than it solves, thus it should be eliminated.



or, they're intellectual elitists: look how much smarter I am than all the religious sheeple! why would anyone believe any of this, it's so stupid! we need to get rid of it because it's stupid



personally, I don't like religion because I was indoctrinated into christianity at birth and i feel like i wasted the first sixteen or so years of my life trying to follow eight million contradictory rules, constantly feeling like i was going to hell and that god didn't love me (WHY THE FUCK WON'T YOU TALK TO ME GOD?), dealing with constant cognitive dissonance, and generally being much more closed-minded than I am now. granted, my openness of mind comes more from growing up in general than it does from abandoning faith, but religion has done me no favors and is doing most of its adherents no favors.



now am i going to claim i'm offended by religious lyrics? nah, i don't pay attn to lyrics in the slightest. HOWEVER, in any case where the quality of the music is forsaken by the composer in favor of a lyrical focus, then I take offense. With kensrue's solo work, this is generally the case. it's easy to point to said religious lyrics as a detractor and say "damn am i at church camp lmao we get it dude you're religious stop singing about religion" rather than "i don't like this because the music is just background noise for the words"



and keep in mind, the illusion of safety is my favorite album of all time. and ios has a subtle dagger, a track that vehemently decries evolution in favor of creationism. the lyrics there are imo better written than the ones on kensrue's solo stuff. so i guess what all this rambling comes down to is:



religious lyrics aren't in and of themselves offensive, but when the same artist has done religious lyrics without being heavy handed and obvious, and also included interesting music (AKA the actual medium of art being discussed), and switches to overbearing religious lyricism without interesting music to back it up, THAT is offensive.

It's not offensive, you just don't think it's as good. Unless I'm misunderstanding the definition of offended?

Album Rating: 3.0

it offends my sense of artistic pride? eh, stretching the definition but

Album Rating: 2.5

Wow, Daniel. I rly feel u, man.

Album Rating: 3.0

i've always said "if you want good lyrics, go read a book of poetry. leave the music to musicians please"

Joking about sexual assault itt c'mon dudes

Album definitely suffers from lack of structural variation (almost every song falls within 3-4 minutes and have predictable progressions) but Dustin is so good at writing these types of songs that it almost doesn't matter. I feel like I'll listen to individual songs from this very frequently but rarely listen to it straight through.