iTunes deleted my original review!
4
By FitForAnImpendingDoom100
Why, iTunes? That aside, Life After Death isn’t TobyMac’s best album, but no one expected a masterpiece from him anyway, certainly not after what he’s been through. First he suffered the loss of his son—who lost a major battle with drug addiction—and as if that wasn’t enough, COVID came to town and shut down his touring, which is his lifeblood. One wouldn’t have blamed him if he had gotten bitter at God; it wouldn’t have been too farfetched if he pulled an Underøath and just gave up on Jesus altogether. But as the album shows, he held fast to Jesus and chose to remember His love and faithfulness when he could’ve disregarded it. He points out that the Christian life isn’t always a ray of sunshine, that storms come and go, yet even then one must believe that with Jesus there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Indeed, the lyrics on LAD are incredibly powerful, very down-to-earth and real, praising God through the pain and addressing problems in the world, especially in the Christian community. No, not every song is great—Deeper featuring the lifeless Tauren Wells is awful, and Found isn’t really a TobyMac song, just a dull Terrian vehicle—but even when the music fails the words hit deep, with lots of individuality and personal viewpoint shining through, which most CCM artists do not portray and instead focus on ungrounded, safe and hollow worship and shut out the world. There are more guests than he’s ever had, too much in fact, but there are the few (Sheryl Crow, DC Talk & Blessing Offor) that are splendid, and doubtless they all appeared to cheer him up. The best songs are Faithfully, Fire’s Burnin’, Help Is on the Way, I’m Sorry (which criticizes the Pharisaism of the Church community) and especially 21 Years, where Toby displays all the stages of his grief and concludes with a line that chokes me up: “21 years, I loved every one/Thank you Lord for my beautiful son”. Again, it’s not his best, but LAD is far better than the previous Elements and shows that he continues to be one of the few, besides David Crowder, in mainstream CCM that worships his own way and expresses himself rather than cave in to the uptight people and repeat empty praises. I’ve listened to TobyMac since I was six, and even though I’m now a Christian death metal fan, I return to Toby still, because of his realness and genuineness in his music.
