Album Of The Day: The Great Light by Rivers & Robots

Album Art of Rivers And Robots's The Great Light album - A drawing of three birds sitting on a branch with a few leaves and berries in the middle of a beige background. Above the illustration, still near the middle, is the band's name in fairly small black text. In slightly smaller text towards the bottom is the album title. Along the left side is wedge-shaped area which shows a field of sunflowers in black-and-white. Above all this in the middle are three interlocking circles, the biggest one an orangish-red, the middle size a light blue, and the smallest a light green.

Released 15 years ago this coming Wednesday, this is the first studio album from English worship band Rivers & Robots. Released independently, Jonathan Ogden and his band mix Bible verses and prayers with simple melodies of soft rock and keyboard-based electronica. The calming vocals with harmonies and the musical bed bring a quiet, contemplative vibe to most songs, but unlike many of today's recorded modern church music, it's not recorded live with an audience singing along. I guess I'm not sure if any churches sing these songs, but that's what the lyrical style almost sounds like. Rivers & Robots focuses a bit on the musical artistry than most church worship bands, I think, though the style could be considered a bit lo-fi these days. The band got a lot more notice with their more recent albums, but this album shows they had their sound and songwriting/production down right from the start. This album is a good listen, though I've not yet listened to it enough that they have gotten stuck in my head or anything.

Release Year: 2011
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Buy on Bandcamp

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