Raising Up the Dead

iTunes Review

The smart, bittersweet folk/pop of Caedmon’s Call is in fine form on Raising Up the Dead. With founding member Derek Webb back in the fold, the veteran Texas-bred combo offers a batch of songs informed by their faith, if not always explicitly Christian in content. Webb displays a touch of the edginess found in his recent solo work in “Family” (a plea for inclusiveness with electronica overtones) and “God’s Hometown” (a moody waltz depicting the wages of unhealthy love). Danielle Young steps out as lead vocalist on the buoyant character sketch “She” and the yearning “Come With Me.” The band’s underlying folksiness comes through on the genteel, fiddle-accented “I Need a Builder” and the bruised-yet-hopeful “Streets of Gold.” Throughout, Cademon’s Call balances a sense of social conscience (heard in “Sometimes a Beggar”) with a celebratory spirit of personal revival (captured most powerfully in “Free”). They could easily get by with smoother, more comforting songs than these. That they choose not to do so is a measure of their artistic integrity.