RIAA Certified Gold®-selling Centricity Music band Unspoken releases its first new studio album in over five years, IV, which is available at digital and streaming outlets globally HERE. The foundational, undeniable love of God that is not changed by an ever-shifting culture nor the inevitable storms of life is the theme of the band’s 10-song, fourth studio project and long-awaited follow-up to 2019’s Reason.
IV’s anchor track and top 15 and climbing radio hit, “What He Says About You,” expands on that seminal topic of God’s love by challenging the false labels society places on people. Thinking about his young daughters and the message he wants etched on their impressionable hearts, Unspoken’s Chad Mattson wrote the driving, guitar-heavy selection with his bandmate Jon Lowry alongside songwriters Ethan Hulse, Tyrus Morgan, Tedd T, Tony Wood and Chris Stevens. Mattson wrestled with the lyrics over the course of six months to get to the core of a believer’s identity in Christ, ultimately reminding listeners that they are loved, chosen, held, forgiven and treasured by the Creator of the universe.
“It’s really hard to differentiate the truth from how we feel or who culture says we should be. So I hope this song just washes over people’s spirits, minds and hearts, reinforcing what the truth really is,” Mattson says. “There’s only one voice that matters, and it’s the voice of God.”
As he grappled with the song’s lyrics, the father of three realized he was writing them for himself as much as his children. “The same stuff that’s affecting my daughters is affecting me. I allow a lot more things from the outside world to inform my identity than I do Scripture. I often find myself on my phone more than I’m in the Word,” he admits. “I think it’s our job as parents to help our kids navigate these things and also limit, not only our children’s exposure to it, but our own.”
Like “What He Says About You,” the selections on IV feel like they were written in the midst of real life. Penning nearly 100 contenders over the course of the past five years, Mattson reflects, “I think we’ve just tried to write the songs that were in front of us.”
One of those, “More Church Than Church,” hinges on Mattson’s continued sobriety journey that began more than two decades ago. The cleverly penned track features country music A-lister Walker Hayes, who — like Mattson — has been vocal about being in active recovery.
Other standouts on the album include the pop-centric “Loved By You,” the celebratory “Love Is Everything We Need,” which affirms that loving our enemies is always the best course of action, “Say The Word,” a worshipful offering that calls us to bring whatever faith we can muster and place it in the capable hands of Jesus, and “Where My Joy Comes From.”
“Our job as believers is to reflect Jesus to people, and one of the greatest ways we do that is through the joy we have in whatever circumstance we’re in,” Mattson says of the standout original. “The world wants to tell us our joy comes from our circumstance, but we know that’s not true. How we live and how we respond to both joy and chaos are some of the greatest testimonies to the goodness of God.”
The full, IV track listing follows:
01) Hard Times
02) What He Says About You
03) More Church Than Church
04) Loved By You
05) God Help Me
06) Where My Joy Comes From
07) Love Is Everything We Need
08) Hold On Take Heart
09) Never Running Out
10) Say The Word
Taking the new music and fan favorites on the road, Unspoken headlines its 19-city, 13-state “What He Says About You” tour featuring special guests JJ Weeks and Cade Thompson. The tour launched Sept. 6 and continues through Oct. 19. The itinerary includes:
Sep 25 Kalamazoo, MI
Sep 26 Lake Ann, MI
Sep 27 Holly, MI
Sep 28 Wilmore, KY, Ichthus Festival
Sep 29 Bloomington, IL
Oct 03 Kansas City, KS
Oct 04 Arlington Heights, IL
Oct 05 Watertown, SD
Oct 06 Neligh, NE
Oct 08 Riverton, WY
Oct 09 Cody, WY
Oct 11 Albuquerque, NM
Oct 12 Roswell, NM
Oct 13 Lamar, CO
Oct 15 Tulsa, OK
Oct 19 Pharr, TX
For more Unspoken music, tour, news and information, go to https://unspokenmusic.com.
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