Review Summary: I'm ready to let the world go
I struggled for a while to put my unequivocal love for this album into reasons that would make actual sense. After all,
Into The Mystery is the eighth record by a band that some might label as Contemporary Christian Rock, and it doesn't deviate very far from the band's reliable formula. In fact, if anything, it's a bit more streamlined than their benchmark releases: the more pastoral
Rivers In The Wasteland, the country-ish fare of
The Outsiders, or the rootsy folk-rock of
The Reckoning. It's quite the conundrum, as I sit here looking up at a perfect score unable to justify it, yet feeling the need to promote it with fervor to an audience far more discerning than the worship/gospel scene it was clearly aimed at. You're probably going to write this off as just another exercise in melodic radio rock, and you know what? I can't argue with that. On its objective merits alone,
Into The Mystery is nothing special. Sure, there are some interesting wrinkles, like the synth keys which close 'What I'm Here For' or the dreamy guitars and antiquated strings on 'Chances', but at no point will the album make you flip over tables because of its incredible instrumental genius. What it will do - and this is where I intend to focus my shaky argument - is touch your soul. Needtobreathe is one of those bands that simply possesses
it. I wish I knew what
it is: contagious passion? Lyrical eloquence? A figment of my own imagination undetectable to anyone else as I sit here ardently praising inherently mediocre rock? It could be any of these things, honestly, but I'd like to think it's a little more of doors one and two. Few bands possess the ability to
move me this easily. Jimmy Eat World is perhaps one other example: they've done nothing from a musical standpoint that's worth lauding as
truly exceptional, yet album in and album out they floor me with their heartfelt lyrics, earnest delivery, and awe-inspiring atmospheres. For whatever reason, I just
get them, or they get
me, or however the magic that is music works. That's the closest I can come to prefacing why
Into The Mystery has more to it than initially meets the ear, and why it has inspired me enough to take on this ludicrous attempt at persuasion.
One of the most immediately endearing traits on
Into The Mystery is how Needtobreathe don't hide from their flaws, but bask in them instead. Whether they're personal ("I’ve made mistakes and even worse than that / I’ve hurt the ones that I love") or professional ("I watched my friends take over the radio / All it did was drill a hole in my ego"), the band immediately opens up to listeners as if they're lifelong confidants. It sets the tone right away, as they speak to us directly from the heart about their hopes and regrets. For frontman Bear Rinehart, the mistakes of his past aren't laments so much as they are evidence of being human. On the opening track he sings "I don't need silver linings / I just need room to be wrong sometimes", and it's a verse that I think anyone can immediately connect with. There are few things we can get right all the time, and the only thing we can ask for is the opportunity to grow, learn from our mistakes, and be forgiven. At another juncture, Rinehart sings with increasing purpose, "I'd say, 'God, I'm only human' / You'd say, 'That's what I'm here for'", and there's a beauty in the message's duality. Whether Rinehart is singing it as a figure of speech to close friend (god, I’m only human!) or as a direct line to his personal savior is debatable, and it serves either a religious and secular purpose depending on how you choose to perceive it. This is the sort of thing that we witness in abundance across
Into The Mystery's rich lyrical passages, and it's part of what separates this album from your run-of-the-mill “made for radio” outings.
Into The Mystery is an album brimming with spiritual and existential themes. One of the primary motifs spanning the experience is a willingness to change - to be able to look back at who you once were and consciously decide that you no longer associate with those values. In some ways, that's how the album's title could be taken: to move away from your former identity is to step into a mysterious new life where nothing is guaranteed. It's a concept that comes across poignantly on 'Carry Me', a track about setting fire to defensive postures, emotional barricades, and self-serving excuses. Jon Foreman of Switchfoot is featured here as the band sings in beautiful harmony "I found a place where the past was forgiven, where my mistakes met a grace I couldn't earn / And so I piled up my excuses and defenses in the night, then I lit a match, stepped back and watched them burn." Fire is used as a cleansing force throughout
Into The Mystery, re-appearing on the string-swept and piano laden 'Don't Throw All The Good Things Away', where Rinehart belts out, "This house is going up in flames / Am I something you would save?" to express doubt over his worth to those closest to him. The song, featuring backing vocals from Natalie Hemby of The Highwomen, longs for a future devoid of past bruises - and you'd be forgiven for wondering if they're singing about themselves or the world at large: "No more heartache and hand-me-down pain."
A song that deserves its own section is the closing bookend, 'West Texas Wind.' The track just about encompasses Rinehart's entire life in four minutes, and it's a moment full of beauty, fear, heartache, and letting go. "It's dark and it's quiet in my house tonight, babies are all gone to sleep / It's hard to imagine a better life" is how the acoustic soul-mover begins, painting an image of domestic bliss that I'm all too thankful to be able to relate to. Quickly, the mood shifts from placid to panicked, as he begins to think about the future and one's transient existence: "Don't blink an eye, you're a young man now / But you won't always be." The emotion ratchets up a notch as Rinehart begins to lament all of the things in this life that he won't be able to take with him - "My blood and my bones, my heart and my hands / They try to hold all of this in / But I'm running to you like a west Texas wind" - as he struggles to find any level of resolution over it all: "I wish that peace would find me here, but it seldom ever does." The song, and subsequently the entire album, ends with him looking at the chaotic world surrounding him and admitting that he's ready to move on to the great unknown, into the mystery: "I'm in the shadows of Heaven and Earth, maybe they should be the same...This house is not our only home, you can't protect love with stone / I'm ready to let the world go." The raw emotional intensity of Bear's voice is enough to carry the song, and it ends up being the most affecting moment of the record, and possibly of Needtobreathe's entire catalog.
To preface why this moment is so powerful upon arrival, it helps to look back at some of the things Rinehart is leaving behind.
Into The Mystery may be overflowing with themes of mortality and spirituality, but so much of it is also firmly rooted in love: from romantic loyalty/faith to friendship and the power of community. Lines like "The romance that we have, oh, it's easy by design / I was fortunate to find you, I'm still blown away you're mine" and "Love is not a cage, love is not a path / Love's a steady hand waitin' for the storm to pass" are a dime-in-a-dozen here, where Rinehart sings freely of love and relationships in a way that is both relatable and highly poetic. On the summery country-rock anthem 'Sittin' In The Backseat', he illustrates how these lyrics evolve over the course of the album from rooted in the present to glancing towards the end: "We were young and we were undefeated...We could find love in the smallest things / But everybody has a path, we all grow up at last." By the time
Into The Mystery winds to its stunning close, 'West Texas Wind' rightfully hits you as more of a tearful relinquishment of everything he loves than a spite-filled goodbye. The album gathers memories like a snowball rolling downhill - some are happy, some are sad - but by the conclusion you feel the weight of the entire experience crashing into you.
Again, I'd be lying if I tried to sell
Into The Mystery to you as an innovative musical experience. Even among Needtobreathe's own loyal fanbase, some are beginning to write this off as a middling effort within the grand scheme of their highly established discography. But music is entirely personal, and many aspects of this album have resonated with me in a fashion that is almost indescribable. It could have something to do with my religious upbringing, or maybe because so much of the lyrical content revolves around family and the unique fears that accompany having people you love
that much in your life. No matter what the reason is, I'm sure that there will be other listeners who will get what I did out of this - and this is my attempt to help even just a few of those folks find this. I'm only sorry that I'm not a better writer who would be able to isolate and subsequently convey
exactly what the magic is that Needtobreathe captures within these walls. Whatever it is, I hope that you're able to hear it too.
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