On The Loudest Sound Ever Heard, The Choir asks tough spiritual questions and doesn't settle for easy, reassuring answers. The veteran Christian alt-rock unit delves into matters of faith, friendship, and mortality with clear-eyed compassion, surrounding singer Derri Daugherty’s high tenor vocals with pulsating washes of effects-laden guitars. Drummer Steve Hindalong’s lyrics both acknowledge the doubts of a committed believer and reaffirm faith in the ultimate power of love. Songs like “Cross That River,” “The Forest," and the title tune radiate a hard-won optimism, amid ambient and coolly shimmering textures. Fuzzed-out bass and a buoyant tempo set off “Takin’ the Universe,” a joyful love ode that glows with the colors of a psychedelic Song of Solomon. Daugherty duets with Sixpence None the Richer’s Leigh Nash on “After All,” a hauntingly atmospheric track that invokes the grandeur of vast starry skies. As has been its wont for more than a quarter-century, The Choir displays an honesty and humanity in its music that makes cosmic-scale themes seem like personal confessions.