Crack the Sky

Description

Crack the Sky is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Mylon LeFevre & Broken Heart, released on Myrrh Records in 1987, a division of Word. Also manufactured and distributed by A&M Records. The album was digitally recorded and mixed by Joe Hardy at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee; with Mylon LeFevre and Hardy producing. Featuring “For My Growing”, a duet with Carole Ford (who actually wrote the song), and “I Belong”, a song written by Karen and Don Peris of The Innocence Mission.

Broken Heart is Mylon LeFevre on guitar and vocals, Paul Joseph on synthesizers and vocals, Scott Allen and Trent Argante on guitars and vocals, Kenneth Bentley on bass and vocals, and Ben Hewitt on digital drums and percussion.

In the October 10, 1987 issue of Billboard Magazine, Roland Lundy, executive vice president for Word Music, told the magazine that “at the end of the summer, Mylon LeFevre’s ‘Crack The Sky’ is the No. 1 best-seller in all of the Zondervan stores and our overall best-seller nationwide.

After decades in the gospel music business, Mylon LeFevre is nothing if not a survivor. A survivor is someone who learns from the past, maximizing strenghts, fixing the faults, and overcoming the weaknesses. ‘Crack the Sky’, while no new revelation, is the sum of what was respectable on ‘Sheep in Wolves Clothing‘ and the misbegotten ‘Look Up‘ (an attempt to open up a door into the secular marketplace, a Broken Heart by any other name), without some of the excess baggage that has encumbered Mylon and the band in the past. Now, dropping most of the rock ‘n’ roll accoutrement (and most of the rock ‘n’ roll, for that matter), LeFevre has settled into the comfortable and safe niche of the A/C to pop Christian radio format.

The title track, written by Rick Crow, sparkes with the same energy that made «Trains Up in the Sky» a hit. «Love God, Hate Sin», marking the turn from subtlety in Christian lyrics, rocks (sort of) through the guitar solo, but the remainder is subdued. Essentially, LeFevre and Co. have found a warm, accessible groove («Closer Than a Heartbeat» and «Give It Up», sung by Kenneth Bently) that works for them. Gratefully, the digital drums have more punch than on ‘Look Up’, and the keyboards have taken every opportunity to add interesting bits to otherwise staid arrangements. These factors, plus Joe Hardy’s superb production and Fairlight manipulation, make ‘Crack the Sky’ the most credible and enjoyable Broken Heart album to date. (You just gotta know they’ll rock this material harder in person.) If this is any indication, than it is indeed a good thing that Mylon survives. I wish him more like this one. [Brian Quincy Newcomb, CCM, August 1987]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/crack-the-sky/1167725944)

LP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Crack The Sky” – 4:00
A2. “Love God, Hate Sin” – 3:35
A3. “Closer Than A Heartbeat” – 3:41
A4. “Give It Up” – 3:01
A5. “I Belong” – 3:47

Side Two
B1. “Let Me Be The One” – 3:45
B2. “Reach For The Sky” – 5:47
B3. “Heart On Fire” – 3:11
B4. “For My Growing” – 4:42

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD by Myrrh Records.