Jesus Freak (album)

Background

After three albums of hip-hop oriented sound, including DC Talk's Grammy award-winning third album, Free at Last, which was based primarily on hip-hop- and pop-oriented songwriting, the trio decided to innovate and reinvent their style.

After three years, DC Talk returned with songs featuring a more alternative rock sound. Thus, the album's lead single, "Jesus Freak", was considered unexpected by fans and critics alike.

Michael Tait said, "I was totally into rock and roll at the time [...] I really wanted to make a rock record." The band decided to focus on more rock-oriented music, with touches of rap and pop interwoven into the mix. Tait later explained, "We wanted to write songs that would hopefully touch a generation."

Recording and production

Compared to DC Talk's other albums, Jesus Freak was, stylistically, an experiment. The album was a fusion of various musical genres, including pop, rock, and grunge, all combined with hip hop.

The title track, "Jesus Freak," is also of historical importance. It is believed to be the first link between grunge and rapcore in CCM. The song was even played on some secular stations.

In addition, the album contains several cover songs, including "Day by Day," from the musical Godspell, and a heavily overhauled version of "In the Light" originally by Charlie Peacock. Several spoken-word samples are also heard; "Mind's Eye" features the words of Billy Graham and "What If I Stumble" contains a quote from Brennan Manning.

Lyrical themes

As with the genres, the themes of Jesus Freak are varied, ranging from the spiritual - such as accepting Jesus, hypocrisy, atheism - to the social - such as seeking forgiveness from a friend, racism, facing intolerance, and acceptance.

Release

Jesus Freak was released on November 21, 1995. It debuted at number 16 on the Billboard 200, selling over 85,800 copies in its first week of release. This number was the highest debut for a Christian album at the time.

After the album, released through ForeFront Records, proved to be extremely successful, the band signed an exclusive distribution deal with Virgin Records. The label made it a priority to promote the album to mainstream music fans. Due to this promotional increase, "Between You and Me" became a hit for the band, managing to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

Critical reception

Critical response to Jesus Freak was generally positive.

After the initial success of its release, Jesus Freak was RIAA-certified as Gold by its first month, for shipments exceeding 500,000 units.

Many of the album's singles were met with positive reception. for instance, "Jesus Freak" was the first non-AC song to win the Dove Award for Song of the Year.

The album has gone on to sell over two million copies in the United States, achieving double platinum certification by the RIAA.

The album also spawned several hit singles. Six of the album's singles became number-one hits across various Christian radio formats. "Between You and Me" was even a cross-over hit on secular radio, peaking at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Legacy

The album is considered one of the greatest and most influential Christian albums of all time and is viewed as a landmark of the 1990s alternative rock scene.

It is one of the biggest-selling Christian albums of all time and has been certified double platinum in the United States and gold in Canada.

On June 20, 2006, Gotee Records released a ten-year anniversary tribute, Freaked!, featuring artists from record labels Gotee and Mono vs Stereo covering songs from the original album. "In the Light" and "Jesus Freak" are both featured in Alive and Transported. In addition, the songs are still regularly sung in tobyMac, Kevin Max, and Newsboys concerts.

In 2006, EMI released a commemorative 10th-anniversary version of the album, Jesus Freak: 10th Anniversary Special Edition. This special edition contained a bonus disc of brand-new remixes, rarities, live tracks, and demos. A single-disc remaster was released in 2013.

For the 20th anniversary of the album in November 2015, SMLXLVinyl.com released a double lp 180-gram vinyl of the album. It was its first pressing on the format.

Music videos