Track Listing: 1. "Forgiven" – 3:37 2. "These Things Take Time" (Christopher Stevens) – 3:21 3. "The Way the World Turns" (Stevens) – 4:08 4. "Lead Me" (Jason Ingram) – 3:48 5. "The Redeemer" (Stevens) – 3:45 6. "Take Over Me" (Stevens) – 3:05 7. "I Want to Get Lost" (Jason Gray) – 3:54 8. "'Til I Got to Know You" (Ben Glover, Stevens)– 3:57 9. "Dear Heart" (Allen Salmon) – 3:01 10. "I'll Show You How to Live" (Ingram) – 3:19 11. "Keep My Heart Alive" (Glover) – 3:26

From a grungy Ohio garage to continental tours, the boys from Sanctus Real have certainly come a long way from the days in which they would have to scrounge for money in telemarketing jobs to pay for an album’s worth of recording space at a major studio. Well known and respected in the Christian music industry, theirs is indeed an impressive CV; multiple Dove award winners and nominees and Grammy-nominated for the 2009 release We Need Each Other, it is not surprising that their newest release was preceded with much hype and excitement. What is slightly surprising, though, is that this album exudes a sense of bro

The band’s musical evolution has continued unabated in this album; the raw, grungy alternative rock of Say It Loud and Fight The Tide has almost completely been usurped by a cleaner, less frenetic and more radio-friendly pop sound. “Forgiven”, the first single, starts off not with a roaring guitar lick but with a jingly mandolin, infectious but somewhat misleading given the weighty subject matter of the album. I say weighty, but it’s as blatantly expressed as ever; Sanctus Real have never been known or labeled for their lyrical subtleties, and Hammitt openly pours his heart out on multiple subjects like relational conflicts, uncertainty and forgiveness. It’s both an advantage and a detriment to the band; whilst providing lyrics that can be freely related to by all and sundry, Sanctus Real may nevertheless sound to some like a broken record, dealing with the same themes in the same style as they always have been.

Don’t get me wrong, though; Sanctus Real still provide some quality moments on this album. “These Things Take Time” sounds quirky at first, but holds a deceptively catchy melody line along with sunny guitar interplay. Hammitt somehow finds time to address the eternal Christian conundrum as well, wondering: “I wanna know why pain makes me stronger, I wanna know why good men die”. A desperate, unveiled cry to God is apparent in “The Way The World Turns”, and the band’s signature driven chorus is in full flight here. Indeed, while Sanctus Real have undoubtedly sought to appease mainstream Christian pop markets with their later releases, they have never lost the inherent ability to drive heartfelt praise with layered instrumentations. A children’s choir is even added for poignancy; this is one of the standout tracks on Pieces Of A Real Heart.

None of the musicians take centre stage throughout the album, and perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing. There are no screeching guitar solos or pounding drum lines; rather, the instrumentalists all meld together for a rather pleasing, if unnecessarily safe, conglomerate to back up Hammitt’s impassioned vocals. “Lead Me” emphasizes this, as complicated instrumentation would take away from the undoubtedly personal cries for leadership in Hammitt’s marriage after his wife’s admonitions for him to be a “better spiritual leader”. Those looking for virtuoso musicianship would be advised to spend their music on Dream Theater and the like, but for unadulterated, desperate and wholehearted Christian pop Sanctus Real works just fine.

That’s not to say there aren’t downsides to this album, though. The strings in “The Redeemer” sound altogether forced, an unnecessary addition to what is already a shaky sound. While most have more or less accepted that Sanctus Real will never recapture the ear-splitting grunge of their early days due to musical evolution, the inclusion of “Take Me”, a dirty guitar-driven number with an edgy vocal track, is a throwback to those times and raises the question of where the band would have been had they remained as the Christian equivalent of the Foo Fighters. These shortcomings do not disguise the fact, however, that Pieces Of A Real Heart is a justified step in the evolution of Sanctus Real as a musical force. If anything, it shows us, the all-demanding and callous public, the fragility and emotional needs of musicians as nothing more than normal people. The band have laid everything bare and perhaps more importantly, have chosen to ignore the typically angsty lyricism that characterizes today’s music scene and cry out for help to the God who is infinitely bigger than any circumstance.

Rating: 4/5

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Sanctus Real

Standout Tracks
1. “These Things Take Time” – Hammitt’s alternative tangent to the problem of evil pays off; it’s quirky without being clichéd, and characterizes the band’s open-hearted approach to music.
2. “The Way The World Turns” – Creative but simple, desperate cry to God. Manages to refresh a topic that’s been done into the dust by so many beforehand. A standout.

REVIEW BY JOSH Y

Be sure to check out the Sanctus Real Interview we did.