Plumb “Need You Now: Deluxe Edition” Album Review

Prime Cuts: Lord I’m Ready Now, Need You Now (Worship Version), Don’t Deserve You (Radio Mix)

Sometimes God speaks through some of the most unexpected people. Ask Tiffany Arbuckle Lee aka Plumb. Way back in the year 2000, Plumb was at the cusp of leaving her singing career after being haggard by the politics of the industry. Just as Plumb sang her swan song at her farewell concert, a girl gave her note detailing how the song "Damaged" had rescued her from despair and how she had hoped that Plumb would continue to use her music as a vessel of God's healing. Taking this as an ominous sign from God, Plumb realized that her life's mission had yet to be complete. So, she signed with the esteemed Curb Records in 2003 and has so far blessed us with four studio albums and a compilation collection. More importantly, Plumb has a unique way of ministering God's healing to troubled souls especially teenagers suffering from abuse or shattered self-images with songs such as "Boys Don't Cry," "Nice, Naïve and Beautiful," "Cut," "Real" and "God-Shaped Hole."

"Need You Now," Plumb's fourth studio album under the Curb imprint, was released in 2012. One and a half years later, Curb has decided to release the deluxe version which features four new songs and two new remixes of two of the album’s biggest hits “Don’t Deserve You” and the title cut “Need You Now.” Re-released deluxe packages used to be a bittersweet affair with fans who have had already bought the original release. But in this day and age, such grief can always be avoided, when one can just download the new tracks without buying the whole package. So, let’s get to the new songs “Need You Now” and “Don’t Deserve You” get a slower treatment with more soaring strings and piano added. The new worship version of “Need You Now” is a keeper; it’s a proleptic hint of Plumb’s future worship to come.

As the songs of Plumb have always straddled between the fine line between human love and divine love, “Starting Over” and “Fall Back In” deal with her marital demise which happened shortly after the original package of “Need You Now.” But they are more than just Plumb washing her dirty laundry in public; both songs are interwoven with regret, forgiveness and hope that reveal Plumb’s redemptive soul. “Lord, I’m Ready Now” utilizes the dramatic pauses that Plumb utilizes in “Need You Now” especially after she sings the word “now” that gives this song of surrender its alluring prowess. “Faithful” finds Plumb’s striking vocals taking center-stage. Just like “Lord I’m Ready Now” the pendulum is now swung towards the Lord as Plumb revels in God’s faithfulness over this snappy electronic beat ballad.

As for the album proper: "Invisible" could be read as a desperate cry for a lover's attention or God's redemption. A brassy and soulful tune, "Invisible" calls to mind Adele's "Skyfall" where the majestic clamour of orchestra and the ethereal swirling of electronica meet. "Drifting," the album's debut single, is more a mainline rock ballad with Jars of Clay's Dan Haseltine helping build to the song's stratospheric climax. While songs like the cutesy "Chocolate and Ice Cream" and "One Drop" are more overtly romantic flurries with Plumb adopting some of Colbie Caillat-inspired sparkling Californian electronic bells and syncopated beats. While "At Arm's Length" sounds like words lifted out of the book of Hosea where God is pictured as a love sick paramour desperately calling us to be reconciled to Him.

Serving as a perfect accompaniment to the book, “Need You Now: the Deluxe Version” tells the honest story of a woman struggling in life’s trenches yet she still has a formidable spirit of trust and hope in her Savior. Combining transparent truth and authenticity together with sweeping rock and pop musical arrangements, Plumb’s record is one made for all of us, for we too have struggled and failed; and we too look to our Saviour for our redemption.

Tags : Plumb plumb need you now deluxe version plumb review plumb news plumb need you now review plumb need you now: deluxe edition review Plumb 2014