Album review: Derek Webb

Stockholm Syndrome | 

Derek Webb's latest album has stirred up a lot of controversy, primarily because of the presence of one choice four-letter word. Some have accused Webb of invoking the expletive to get attention and make people listen to his album.

If so, fine, because Webb's Stockholm Syndrome is as challenging and thought- provoking as any Christian album in recent memory. It is most definitely an adult album in that it tackles numerous issues that need be discussed with more than talking points, and musically it's Webb's most diverse and nuanced effort. The topics, to name a few, include government, firearms, commercial spirituality, social justice and homosexuality — specifically, how some Christians treat people who are gay. The last point is the one attracting all the attention with What Matters More, in which Webb takes on Christians who protest homosexuality while ignoring world hunger and disease. Toward the end of the song, he sings:

Meanwhile we sit just like we don't give a ----

About 50,000 people who are dyin' today

The lyric is reminiscent of talks by evangelist Tony Campolo in which he invokes the same word, saying 30,000 people die of starvation daily, and then chastises listeners for being more upset about the word than the deaths. In both cases, they're challenging, convicting statements. It's something on which Webb, as a solo artist, has based much of his career: confronting the conventional notions of conservative, evangelical Christianity.

On Stockholm Syndrome, he does that better than he ever has before.

Freddie, Please takes on Fred Phelps, the Kansas man who has staged protests against homosexuality at churches and funerals. Webb sings from the perspective of Jesus, asking, "How could you tell me you love me, when you hate me?"

Webb soft-sells the lyrics in the form of a doo-wop ballad, one of several sonic turns that take Stockholm Syndrome far beyond a singer-songwriter protest album. There's the swirl of The Spirit vs. the Kick Drum, an indictment of purely emotional, vapid faith; the dance-y Jena & Jimmy that's as seductive as the drunken one-night-stand it describes; and moments when the album gears down to a simple tune and a naked voice that stops listeners in their tracks.

It is too bad INO Records was reluctant to release this record and will not release it in its entirety. The disc, minus What Matters More, comes out in stores Sept. 1. But listeners who pre-order through Webb's site can get an immediate digital download of the complete album.

If your fingers do the walking, prepare to give the album some time, because once Webb has your attention, he won't let go.

Rich Copley, rcopley@herald-leader.com