Artist: Hyland
Title: Finding Our Way
Record Label: Tooth & Nail
Release Date: 10/22/2012
Reviewer: Sara Walz
Tracklisting:
- Power & Love
- Wandering & Waiting
- Beauty In The Broken
- Brothers
- Calm In Our Storm
- More Than Famous
- Work In Progress
- Lucky In Love
- Well Done
- Never Fails You
For their sophomore album on Tooth & Nail the Minnesota natives along with producer, Jeff Schneeweis (Number One Gun, The Make), craft a polished, full release that will quite possibly make Hyland a household name. Finding Our Way has melodic pop sensibilities, clean vocals, and even some whistling! The boys of Hyland are growing up and, as the title suggests, finding their way.
The album kicks off with “Power & Love.” The song is driven by the drums and keys that have a vaguely 80’s feel to them. The guitar doesn’t even make an appearance until the second verse and plays the background. It is a great opener for the album, it grabs your attention. It explores a new sound for Hyland while still remaining Hyland at it’s heart. The first single, “Beauty in the Broken” epitomizes what the band does well, a full sound incorporating a lot of instruments and harmonies. The hook is catchy and after one listen you’ll be singing along. Not every song on the album is so shiny, “Well Done” is pretty stripped down with an acoustic guitar and strings (guessing a cello or viola). It’s almost haunting and recorded so there’s a faint echo which makes it feel like it’s being played live in the room with you. Frontman, Jon Lewis, said they took a bit of a different approach musically this time around, “It didn’t have to follow some set of rules of what we were. This music is interesting to us, and the content’s there, so let’s juts have fun with it.”
One thing is for sure, the content is definitely there. Every song on Finding Our Way tells a story, whether it’s a story about life’s purpose, a story about love, or a story about the journey’s we go on, these stories are sure to resonate with the listener. Some of the stories were born out of Scripture including the first single, “Beauty in the Broken.” Taking the concept from Jeremiah 29 that we are born with a purpose and a plan, even in the hard times. “More Than Famous” takes the listener outside of themselves to look at who is truly worthy of being famous, “let my life shine, let the world see, you alone are everlasting.”
Not only did the band approach the music differently but they also approached the songwriting differently. Following the theft of the bands gear in 2011 and the generous outpouring of love and support from fans and friends the guys in Hyland realized how much their music can mean to people and became even more intentional with their songwriting. Drummer, Steve Weigel, puts it best saying, “That process made us hone in spiritually and evaluate not just what we want to say as a band, but what we want to say to the people who are listening.”
Overall: Finding Our Way is a clean, catchy release. The hooks get stuck in your head like a good hook should and the stories turned into songs are sure to pierce the heart. So the question is, which one is your story?