Description
Coming to Life is sophomore album by the American pop/rock band The Normals, released on ForeFront Records in 2000, distributed in the US by Chordant Distribution Group. The album was produced and mixed by Malcolm Burn. Engineered by Jim Watts. All lyrics by Andrew Osenga. All music by Andrew Osenga and The Normals, except track 9 featuring lyrics by Mark Lockett with music by Lockett and The Normals, and track 6 featuring lyrics by Andrew Osenga with music by B.J. Aberle and The Normals.
Coming to Life… is about loving. It’s about leaving ourselves open to being loved and to being hurt… it’s about surviving; letting God get us the rest of the way… it’s about hurting. It’s about friends that leave us and friends that we leave… it’s about beauty. It serves to remind us that God created this world, placed us in it, and called it good… it’s about faith, hope and love. It is the story of the people of God. The story of what we believe. – Andrew Osenga [Note printed on the back of the CD]
I’ll get the sound-alike bit out of the way at the start – Andrew Osenga leads the Normals with a hint of Bono in reflective mood. The songs themselves are a tad more mellow, wordy and introspective than U2, but the hunger is there; the searching honesty of life unresolved, raw and, dare I say it, normal. Now, I’m not supposed to get euphoric (Reviewers’ Class, lesson four, bullet point three) but this is a memorable album particularly in what it awakens in you as you are drawn into it. There are all sorts of twists and turns in the songs, mostly written by Andrew Osenga himself – with the inventive arrangements given global band credit. It is full of terse musical understatements and deeply intimate lyrical moments. The experience is like listening to the diary of a journey. You’ll find yourself in there somewhere, surprised by the way the music adds your meaning to the unfolding stories; it is a subtle, surprisingly uncomfortable – yet ultimately redeeming feature. Forefront impress me with the faith they place in their artists, and to my non-American ear, this is one offering which definitely travels well. Set the button to random and nothing will disappoint you. [Phil Thomson, Cross Rhythms, October 2000]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/coming-to-life/724253729)
CD tracklist:
01. Every Moment
02. The Best I Can
03. Black Dress
04. We Are The Beggars At The Foot Of God’s Door
05. Hillary
06. Don’t Hold Back (Full On)
07. No Alibis
08. These Times
09. Two Wrongs And A Right
10. Coming To Life
11. Heaven Heals
12. The Survivor
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