** CLASSIC CHRISTIAN ALBUM ** Keith Green "Icon" Album Review

Prime Cuts: Create in Me a Clean Heart, Make My Life a Prayer, Asleep in the Light

He, being dead, still speaketh.  On July 28, 1982, Christendom grieved one of its most tragic lost when Keith Green perished together with eleven others on a fatal plane crash.  The catastrophe killed not only Green but also his three year-old son Josiah and his two year-old daughter Bethany.   This tragedy curtailed Green's relatively short ministry in Christian music.  But to borrow the words from Hebrews 11:4, though Green has been dead, he still speaks through his music.  Even for those of us who are unfamiliar with Christian music from the late 70s and early 80s, we would have still heard of Keith Green's "There is a Redeemer," "O Lord, You're Beautiful" and "Create in Me a Clean Heart."  In fact, "There is a Redeemer," written by Green's wife Melody, has already been canonized in many hymn books today.  

Green has been known to be a modern day John the Baptist.  Unlike many evangelists today who scratches where people's ears itch, Green never held to such a sissy theology.  Like his hero Charles Finney, Green was acerbic in confronting the church of its blatant hypocrisy.  He was not reticent in provoking lukewarm Christians into Godly jealousy and pushing them to be sell-outs for Jesus Christ.  And he was not afraid of being recklessly generous for the sake of the poor in order to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.  In short, Green was a Godly maverick of the Gospel.

"Icon," which will be released on July 16, 2013, arrives a couple of weeks shy of the thirty first anniversary of Green's death.   This is a compilation album of ten cuts taken from all four of Green's albums released during Green's earthly existence.  Additionally, coming from his posthumously released 1984 "Jesus Comes Us to Go" record is "Create in Me A Clean Heart." Understandably, the lion's share of songs comes from Green's most successful Sparrow Records debut "For Him Who Has Ears to Hear."

Stylistically, Green's music was very much a product of the 70s; his style strongly resembles the keyboard slamming of Elton John and the folk-like pop of say Van Morrison.  So, those of us who unfamiliar with the music of this era may take some time to be acquainted to what feels like dated music especially in offerings such as "Easter Song" and "You Put this Love in My Heart."  But don't let this deter you from the somehow autobiographical "Your Love Broke Through." Green, having grown up in the Hippie culture of the 60s was entrenched in the "free love" movement, where drug use and Eastern mysticism became part of the package.  "Your Love Broke Through" powerfully details how God finally broke through his barriers of skepticism where his life was radically transformed.

"No Comprise," Green's sophomore album, contains one of Green's most beautiful ballads "Make My Life a Prayer."  The opening line: "Make my life a prayer to You / I wanna do what You want me to / No empty words and no white lies / No token prayers, no compromise" has become Green's life mantra.  While most piercing is "Asleep in the Light:" here Green pinches the church for its hypocrisy and its lack of compassion to the needy.  And to prove that he is no mere charlatan, Green left Sparrow Records, mortgaged his home to finance his next record "So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt."  Instead of selling his records, he gave the album away free of charge.  Though fans exploited him by hording more copies than they needed, Green was still adamant that the Gospel should not be a burden to those who are poor.  Such a generous act of faith certainly was rewarded as the album contains the gorgeous hymn "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful."  While many of Green's peers may have had made a fortune from record selling few still sing to their songs as regularly as this hymn of worship. 

Released just months before his untimely death is Green's fourth effort "Songs for the Shepherd."  It is often earmarked as Green's most contemplative album but it also nested one of Christian music's most immortal songs, "There is a Redeemer."  In just a few verses and that iconic chorus, "There is a Redeemer" succinctly captures the redemptive work of Christ from the Cross to his second coming.  "Icon" in many ways is just an iceberg of introduction into Green's magnanimous contribution to Christian music.  Eleven songs on this record hardly do justice in grasping Green's passion for Christ as unraveled in his music.  But at least it's a start.  Grab your copy and let's heed Christ's call through Green to be a sell-outs for Jesus Christ.  Though Green is already dead, but the living Christ still speaks.  And Green's "Icon" is such a testimony.

 

 

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