Its been a busy twelve months or so for Jeremy Camp, and one that will surely now have his mantle piece creaking under the weight of the accolades he has received, including two GMA’s and a number of media and consumer choice awards.
Restored is an accomplished album, showing a vocal maturity beyond his young age, the songs are well written rock tracks with honest heartfelt emotion in them. Nowhere is this honesty in writing better exemplified than on the first track, ‘Restored’ in which we have the memorable chorus “You have restored me from my feeble and broken soul, you have restored me” it is upbeat rock, and the chorus really soars with great guitar riffs throughout. If you really go for the soaring rock style music, then you’ll love ‘Lay down my Pride’ which starts off gentle before launching into an anthematic roar for the chorus. ‘Breathe’ is another tune that practically lifts you off the ground with its energy and passion, powerful words speaking of what God has done for us. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that Camp is all rocking out, as his ballads are penned equally well, with ‘This Man’ being a slower tempo highlight of the album, with sweeping musical backing from a string section, and a powerful image of Calvary, its a really beautiful song.
I did read criticism of Jeremy for this album, saying that the album expresses a testimony for all Christians, and not his personal testimony (which is powerful stuff), however, I think that this is its key strength, you listen to these songs and they really speak to you, because you know that you’re on the same walk, and its this that has touched so many young people, the fact that they can listen to this and think, “hey, that’s true, that’s what I need to focus on, that’s what I need to do.”
With Restored Jeremy produces his finest work yet, with the kind of mature vocals and Lyrics that really stand out from the crowd, its easy to see why the awards came, and to predict that more will come his way, especially if he keeps writing songs with such honesty and passion.
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