Christian alternative rock album Sight draws attention

When I first heard The Eagle and Child, it was January 2018, at Hume Lake winter camp. I was impressed by the unique twist they placed on old hymns, their larger than life stage presence and original songs that provided an anthem for the weekend. 

I hadn’t followed the band closely since then, but my friend Alex Rurik was a strong advocate for them. He wore their merchandise constantly and consistently played them in the car. When their latest album, Sight released, several friends had high opinions and encouraged me to do a review. I decided I had to see what the hype was about.

The Eagle and Child have reached nearly 16,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and their profile describes the heart behind the lyrics in the album description.

“Sight is a concept record to give hope to the tired, to create space for the wounded through passionate guitar solos, songs that are at-times ethereal and other times quite direct, and backed by provocative, intrinsically thought-provoking lyrics.”

Mending The Divides opens the album with soft piano and beautiful, ambient strings. It soon takes a turn with a triumphant electric guitar and rich organ. The song is absolutely massive, and makes for a fantastic opener.

Their next song Nothing Like Your Love is by far my favorite. The first time I heard the band drop out to just the choir, it brought tears to my eyes. This song is a masterpiece, reminding us of God’s generosity and beckoning love. If you are interested in playing this song, the band includes tutorials for each instrument, as well as a chord chart. 

I Want To Know comes next, another awesome song. Accompanying the song is a music video, which shows the men rocking out in a boring workplace, interrupting the mundane. The psychedelic graphics add even more life and color to the project.

Following is Healing Hope, the song that introduced me to their work. Being the main song for the camp, the lyrics always stuck with me. Rurik and I played this song at Calvin Crest to our fellow counselors and they all enjoyed it. Impactful lyrics and a great melody has left me very thankful for this tune. 

Beloved slows down the album as Brad Davis delivers an intimate piano ballad. He reminds us that no matter how many times we mess up, we still receive the title of ‘beloved’, by the most High God. 

Everyone and Everything stands out in the crowd. An amazing synth-driven track supports spoken word verses. The lyrics beg for change and provoke thought. I highly recommend listening to their message of love inspired by the Gospel. 

It was so great to have the @Eagle_and_Child here in the studio today for another one of our #KWAVE #StudioSessions! Their worship concert is March 15th in Hemet, CA! 🎶🎤🎸#KWAVEStudioSessions pic.twitter.com/g6X7Vu4hTq

— KWAVE Radio (@KWVE) March 4, 2019

Broken Nations challenges the Church, asking if the actions have been atrophied or withered away. This song is a prayer, asking God to help the Church to be more genuine and use actions to speak just as loud as words. 

Closing the album, Radiance comes in at a whopping eight minutes. It brings the project to a beautiful conclusion and impacts the listener with powerful lyrics and soaring instrumentals. Ending with reflective piano, the song is the perfect completion to an incredible album.

This album exceeded my expectations. Usually in album reviews, I don’t assess lyrics much because they become borderline meaningless. These however, do not. The Eagle And Child chose not to waste words; their message could not be ignored.

In light of some creative and controversial lyrics, I was inspired to reach out to The Eagle and Child. I asked a few questions via Instagram, about their inspiration and heart behind the album. To my surprise, Davis graciously responded. 

“It’d be hard to not notice that the tension in the country and world is high at this moment,” Davis said. “I’ve had a few opportunities recently to learn from Christians and people in different countries who are peacemakers in their complex environments through immersive experiences with the Global Immersion Project (a faith based, peacemaking training organization that RULES). We play in a lot of worship scenarios, and was having a hard time bridging my responsibilities as a worship leader and my desires for peace, reconciliation, care, and awareness.

“This album is an attempt to bridge the gap,” Davis continued. “The more pain I experience and acknowledge, the more I see the need for God (and God’s main resource, the people of God). So this record is a challenge, invitation, call to God’s people to pull ourselves out of the comfy, cultural Christianity and see just how far this spirit of God inside of us, can take us.”

According to the band, this record is deeper than anything they have previously released. Striving to reach outside Christian environments, The Eagle and Child hopes to use their positive feedback as momentum for further releases.

For more music reviews, see Golden Hour and Voicenotes. For another article, read Andrew Moore expresses faith on, off the field.

Logan Lewis can be contacted via Instagram, Twitter, and email.

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