By: Kevan Breitinger
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Inhabited
Love
7 Spin Music
Rock
02-26-2008
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SCORE
95%
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It’s hard to know where to start in covering the vitality and radiance of Inhabited’s third studio release. If you’ve followed the eclectic career of siblings Marcus and Sara Acker at all, you know them as deeply creative and caring musicians, extraordinary as much for their compassionate hearts as for their significant musical talents. The ten tracks of Love feature more of the same, if by more you mean their gifting set has become even more sharply honed.
Once again the band is on the cutting edge in terms of style and message, the electric guitars edgy and dominating, the lyrics pointed and healing. The incendiary anthem “We Will Live” is the perfect opener, immediately announcing the band’s strength and determination, expressed powerfully in the creative rock arrangement and Sara’s almost feral vocals. The first single, “Hush,” is Inhabited’s answer to Gwen Stefani, addressing directly the young female audience so dear to Sara’s heart. Its message of strength and encouragement dismantles the culture’s sick version of beauty in a form custom crafted to pierce the darkness surrounding the band’s intended listeners. In other words, the track is straight-up spiritual warfare, and the best kind.
The winning title track is a song of surrender, its irresistible chorus delivered perfectly by a very soulful Sara, and standout track “I Want to Know,” explores the desperate distance between faith and feeling. Jangly with taut desire, the pulsating track’s pristine use of strings is nothing short of genius on the part of composers Marcus and Sara, along with producer Monroe Jones. Acoustic heartbreaker “Song to the Fatherless” showcases Sara’s amazing ability to take in pain, process it, and then transmit it in the form of comforting empathy and expressive compassion. Five songs into the album and so far every one a stunner.
“Respect” is a song of potent encouragement to girls who want to start over, its upbeat bounce delivered well over the superbly tight rhythm section. Written following the death of her beloved grandmother, Sara’s masterfully expressive “I Miss You” is an utterly descriptive piano ballad, impossible to resist. Following in the band’s commitment to keeping it real, edgy rocker “One Show” de-glamorizes the experience of a band. Closer “Old School” celebrates the pure bliss of rock and roll.
It must be said that Love is an album written for the fans. Inhabited is a band remarkable for its sincere heart for their listeners, and clearly many of these songs were written in response to the cares and concerns of the fans, and even to specific stories shared along the road. The irony is that this is a band who may easily find mainstream success for its authentic rock powers, and yet they are at the same time a band doing genuinely significant music ministry, in the truest sense of the word. Love is sure to be one of the year’s best.
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