Loading ...The Red Letters Project – Matthew
What if rock operas like Godspell and Jesus Christ, Superstar were produced by somewhat more…reverent talents? You might get The Red Letters Project, an ambitious and eclectic 3-disc performance based on the “red letter” words of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew. Drawn word-for-word from the New Living Translation, it’s a real listening experience, featuring 40 tracks, both sung and narrated.
If you’re used to spoken-word audio Bibles, The Red Letters Project can be a welcome break. The kaleidoscope of musical influences is quite the aural experience – my ears pick up influences including Coldplay, Aerosmith, Hootie and the Blowfish, Lenny Kravitz, James Blunt, Linkin Park, Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz and Weezer. The audio is mixed by Brad Gilderman (Madonna, Motley Crue, Destiny’s Child) and produced by entertainment-industry legend Russ Regan.
If you’re a fan of Jesus, audio bibles, or a music aficionado, I think The Red Letters Project will give you something to listen to…and talk about.
When you post your review, help the wider community by adding the hashtag: #vb-redletters
Monster
“It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” This statement, often attributed to Mark Twain, could easily refer to Jesus’ spoken words, printed in red ink in many editions of the New Testament. It is these rather unsettling red letters that lend their name to “The Red Letters Project”, an ambitious 3 CD recording that pairs modern rock music with every word of Jesus from the New Living Translation of the Gospel of Matthew. The project was published in June 2010 by Tyndale House Publishers and has an approximate running time of 3 hours.
Audio Bibles are common, of course, but two things set “The Red Letters Project” apart. First, it contains only Jesus’ spoken words. As a result, the listener experiences what Jesus said, rather than what others said about Jesus. This gives the project a dynamic quality often lacking in recorded performances of Scripture. It also facilitates a more direct experience than reading, since Jesus originally delivered his teaching as spoken word, not text. As a preacher, Jesus expected to be heard, not read. If the “The Red Letters Project” doesn’t reproduce this experience exactly as it occurred, it at least suggests what it might be like to hear Jesus today.
The second thing that sets this project apart is the music. Music has certainly been incorporated into other audio Bibles, but it usually serves as a backdrop to the text. “The Red Letters Project” is unique in that it integrates Jesus’ words directly into the music. The words remain the focal point, but they are woven into the songs like lyrics. The resulting performances have been described as a more reverent version of Godspell or Jesus Christ Superstar, but these comparisons are inadequate. The project bears more resemblance to a modern rock album. Imagine Stone Temple Pliots singing the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, or Nine Inch Nails telling you to become like a child in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The quality of the music is just that good. While the musicians responsible for writing and arranging the tracks (Dennis Duncan and Mario Canido) are virtual unknowns, Executive Producer Russ Regan is not. Regan is a longtime industry insider responsible for signing such legendary artists as Elton John and Neil Diamond.
Like practically any audio project of this size (40 tracks in all), certain songs stand out more than others. So if there is one criticism that I can level against “The Red Letters Project” it is that despite the high quality, some of the tracks aren’t terribly memorable – at least not after the first listen. Part of the problem is that the ancient texts used to create the tracks were not structured as songs. A winding discourse from the lips of Jesus is not easily sung in the shower.
But with repeated listens the stand-out tracks do start to sink in. Some of the more memorable songs include “Trees and Fruit”, a Beatles-esque piece warning that “every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire” and “70 x 7”, a haunting Alice in Chains-style hard rocker that advises us in the strongest possible terms to forgive others. In “Rapture” – perhaps the most challenging track of the collection – Jesus’ warnings about the last days are conveyed in a manner highly reminiscent of popular artist Seal.
It may be true that like Mark Twain we will be bothered by some of the difficult things in the Bible – including Jesus’ words. But no one can dispute Jesus’ importance or the longevity of his message, both of which, along with some great music, make “The Red Letters Project” more than worth your time. In the words of Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.” True enough so far; it’s been 2,000 years and we’re still listening.
Aug 13th, 2010
Robb Ryerse
In the late 1980s a strange and futuristic character appeared on the scene, briefly capturing the imagination of popular culture. It was this character, Max Headroom, the stuttering, disembodied head-on-a-screen, that came to mind this week when I listened to The Red Letters Project Gospel of Matthew.
The Red Letters Project is an endeavor to artistically set the words of Jesus in the New Living Translation’s Gospel of Matthew to rock music. The result is an epic and soaring experience, reminiscent of rock operas like Jesus Christ Superstar. Using the words of Jesus as lyrics doesn’t lead to an easy-to-listen-to album, but the music is well-done and will definitely appeal to some people. I fully expect that the goal of The Red Letters Project to make the words of Jesus more accessible and relevant will be achieved for some. I just don’t think I will be one of them.
It seems to me that the unintended consequence of this endeavor is that it divorces the words of Jesus even more from their historical context. The canonical text of Matthew is already a couple of steps removed from what Jesus said. It is mediated through the memory of Matthew, and it is translated from the Aramaic that Jesus spoke into Greek. In an attempt to faithfully bring the words of Jesus to a contemporary audience, I fear that The Red Letters Project actually loses even more of the Jesus who lived in time and space.
Jesus did not simply spout off random statements, commands, and encouragements. He made observations about what was happening around him. He answered questions. He engaged in the ongoing cultural, political, and religious dialogs of his day. He was incarnationally present in his world.
The Red Letters Project leaves Jesus like Max Headroom, interesting to listen to yet completely disembodied.
Aug 13th, 2010
Dave Lloyd
I believe in the power of music to get to places in people’s souls where just words can’t get. I have experienced life-changing music that has taken root so deep in my heart that I will never be the same. Music didn’t change me, but it was the vehicle, the delivery system for the message. So when I heard about The Red Letters Project I was stoked.
What a great idea to put all of Jesus’ words to music. I wanted so badly to like this project.
In stressing the importance of music in communicating the gospel, someone has said, “People forget the sermon but they leave the church humming the songs.” The reason that songs are such a strong medium for the message (or any message for that matter) is that they can utilize a few mechanisms that the spoken word does not have:
melodies that are easily remembered
the cadence and rhyme of poetry
lyrics that fit into the ebb and flow of the melody
If the words do not ‘fit’ the melody it sounds awkward. If the musical accents of the melodies are different than the accented syllables of words then it sounds contrived and unnatural.
The gospel of Matthew is not poetry. Beautiful yes. But it does not easily lend itself to being put to music. And because the words are a verbatim recitation of the red words in Matthew, there is rarely a distinguishable cadence and no rhyme. That also means that there are infrequent repeating parts and there are few melodies that are easily remembered. Perhaps the most bothersome for me is that the “lyrics” are often crammed into musical spaces where they don’t fit, making them difficult to understand and not easy to remember.
Now, on the brighter side, Red Letters was very well produced. The musicianship is outstanding and the music sounds great, both vocally and instrumentally. I don’t know what the process of writing and recording was, but my best guess, based on the way it sounds is that once the instrumental tracks were done the vocalist opened the Bible and improvised his way through the book of Matthew with little forethought to melody and not a whole lot of mapping. But that’s a guess.
I’m sure that some folks will enjoy this project. I hope and pray that lots of people are drawn close to Jesus though it. Because I’m a musician I tend to be an opinionated jerk and a perfectionist about these things. But the last thing I want to do is be a nay-sayer when we need to be encouraging folks to create and to be consumers of this kind of project. I applaud those involved for stepping out and doing something that hasn’t been done before. But for me, The Red Letters will not be on my most played list.
Aug 16th, 2010
tiffanymalloy
Today, the family and I spent some time listening to The Red Letters Project: the Book of Matthew, which is a 3 CD set of rock music set to the red letter words in Matthew (aka. the words of Jesus). I REALLY like the idea for this new project. When listening to it, I immediately thought that it would be a great way for Scripture to really invade peoples’ hearts and perhaps aid in some easy memorization.
I definitely enjoyed a few of the tracks, but after awhile I realized that it’s just not my kind of music. I really wish that it would come in different genres because I definitely see the potential in forming the heart towards God.
For people who like rock music, I think this could be a good investment. It’s probably for a younger crowd (i.e. youth group) or some older people who are newer to Christianity (and maybe don’t like to read) and enjoy old school rock. The version is NLT, which makes it easily understandable.
Aug 25th, 2010
theshadesofpink
I agreed to review a copy of The Red Letters Project (Book of Matthew) for The OOZE. What is the Red Letters Project? Here’s part of what the website says: What if rock operas like Godspell and Jesus Christ, Superstar were produced by somewhat more…reverent talents? You might get The Red Letters Project, an ambitious and eclectic 3-disc performance based on the “red letter” words of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew. Drawn word-for-word from the New Living Translation, it’s a real listening experience, featuring 40 tracks, both sung and narrated. Or you could just head to the official site OR their facebook page to learn more.
This is a collection of 3 CD’s so I haven’t had a chance to listen to them all, as I tend to listen to music as a background to my life. But as Mike and I drove into town the other night we listened to the first CD. Admittedly we skipped a few tracks but finally wound up on one that had a beat that caught our attention.
As we listened we came to our ruling over the CD: It’s good. But it’s not something we would go out of our way to listen to.
What does that mean? That means it will play while we am cleaning house and need some background music. But that’s about it. I love Christian Rock. But this didn’t quite meet my expectations.
I was provided this set of CD’s in trade for an honest review.
Aug 31st, 2010
dvdbrumley
I can honestly say that I really, really, really wanted to enjoy Tyndale’s The Red Letter Project; Book of Matthew. When I first opened the three cd set of the teachings of Jesus set to contemporary musical styles I couldn’t wait to give it a listen. After all, I thought, most of my favorite hymns that we sing in church are simply passages of scripture set to music. As I thought about it though, not too many of those hymns actually contain the words, you know the red-letter part of the New Testament, of Jesus. I just knew it was going to be great.
To me it seemed like such a great idea. I received this right after a Facebook discussion with friends talking about how bad I felt about not being able to fully commit Isaiah 53 to memory but if Snoop Dogg’s Gin & Juice came on the Sirius I could quote it verbatim. One friends solution was to sing Isaiah 53 to the tune of Gin & Juice. That seemed a tad blasphemous to me, but when I received the review copy of this project, I figured that this would at least be a chance to test that logic. As of this day, I still have not put Isaiah 53 to any hip-hop beats and The Red Letter Project has not caused me to consider it.
I hate to say this, but I really did not like this project. While there are many contemporary Christian groups whose music I really enjoy (for personal listening, not worship in church), this failed to compare to those most successful artists. I am not sure if it was a matter of production or if it was something else, but something just sounded off on the whole project. The primary problem to me was that if something is supposed to be highlighting the teaching of Jesus, shouldn’t one at least be able to understand what words the artist is singing. While I did enjoy the fact that a pull-out booklet was included with the NLT teaching of Christ/lyrics, I didn’t necessarily plan on having to pull it out in order to understand what was being said. As I found myself reading along in the booklet to keep up with the singing, I couldn’t help but ask myself if I wouldn’t be better served just pulling out my Bible and reading it.
I really hate to give a bad review, but my hope is that the other three gospel accounts have not been produced yet and that either better mixing or singing will take place on the future projects so that the words of Christ will be highlighted. I will not say that this is useless as I with hold hope that someone will hear the words of Christ through this project. While I do plan to listen to this project again in the future, as of today, I would not tell a friend or fellow Christian to purchase this. Save your money and buy a Bible or if you already have one, buy one for someone else.
If you would like to judge for yourself, visit the projects website, click here.
Sep 6th, 2010
sagely
I got excited when I saw that ViralBloggers had a musical interpretation of the words of Christ from Matthew up for review. Me and music go way back, just like me and the Gospel of Matthew. An artist can open up new ways of seeing familiar things. This happened for me my junior year of college with Apt.Core’s Rhythms of Remembrance; the Lord’s Prayer became the beat I live my life to with the song “Kingdom.” I hoped that The Red Letters Project: Book of Matthew would break me open to something new in the same way.
I was excited enough to save the three-disc project for a six hour road trip to visit some friends and their new baby in Evansville, Indiana. There is a lot of artistic space in Jesus’ words in Matthew. As I inserted disc one into my car CD player, I hoped Mario Canido (the artist behind TRLP) would open up the text of Matthew like a prayer candle in a Byzantine monastery.
I strongly believe that good art is like a good conversation: it happens in a place, in a relationship, with a history, with emotion and spontaneity. TRLP opens with a pop anthem with U2-esque aspirations. The next five tracks imbibe deeply of hardcore gone pop, followed by two rock ballad tracks. TRLP strikes me more as a spoken word performance or a monologue in a black box theatre.
I powered through first disc somewhere in the middle of Indiana cornfields, teeth gritted the whole time. My wife frowned in the passenger seat. Disc one of TRLP does to Jesus’ words in Matthew what the Christian publishing industry all too often does to Jesus’ words in book form: they are processed through the moneymaking mill and come out molded into hollow shells of pop culture forms. (My father-in-law works in injection blow-molding; disc one of TRLP feels like one of the plastic auto parts he makes.)
Only a week or two later (after Okkervil River and smalltown college radio stations got me home from Indiana) did I give a listen to discs two and three. I am glad I did.
I was prepared to do the hard work of eviscerating TRLP in my review, but discs two and three have dictated a different task for me. While an over-produced, pop aesthetic runs consistently through all three discs (I picture three or four guys in a studio with Ibanez guitars and Line 6 amps and gear), many of the songs on discs two and three enter into a worthwhile conversation between the text and the artist’s context.
TRLP handles some difficult phrasing issues (the NLT does not render Jesus a poet) with grace. I appreciate the way “What Sorrow Awaits You” handles the Seven Woes (Mt 23.13-23.36). I’ve never found Jesus’ pronouncements on oath-taking particularly catchy, but after listening to the TRLP rendition, I find myself singing it to myself.
Works like Apt.Core’s Rhythms of Remembrance and TRLP: Book of Matthew revive the long tradition of singing scripture (and they do so well at points). These are not congregational singalongs, but they are tunes to rock out to in the car. And between sing and rocking out, scripture can press itself into our lives, molding us instead of us molding it.
I’m curious: What other musical or artistic renditions of scripture do you find beautiful, true, formative, life-giving? We need more of these; we need to make more of these. We need scripture to press in on us from all sides.
Sep 14th, 2010
Loffers
I really wanted to like this creation, as the idea of a musical project to set all the words of Jesus in a gospel to contemporary music really appealed to me. After some of the experiments I’ve had with alternative worship media in a homegroup setting, I was quite excited to experience this work and pleased that a very accessible translation like the NLT had been chosen.
But…
A few problems got in the way of me enjoying more than a few of tracks on this album: (1) I found the musical style tiring after a few tracks, although admittedly rock is not my preferred style – I would have preferred a more indie or alternative style (can’t help thinking of the beauty of BrightEyes style). (2) I know I sound old saying this, but the enunciation is just not good enough, better sound mixing and song design would have kept this working as a scripture reading alternative. (3) Too often the lyrics sound badly forced and I often felt frustrated by where the pauses had been placed or the text split into different songs – or even the style chosen for some verses – to me the natural emphasis of the message at that point was elsewhere.
So, whilst I applaud this effort and think it is worth hearing to understand some of the challenges of such a bold project and lessons learnt on the way, to me this cannot yet serve in either worship or as an alternative means of scripture reading/memorisation/study/engagement.
Well done for trying though – I feel this kind of creative project is what we need more of as we learn how to do this new expression of our faith in more diverse media.
Sep 14th, 2010
jrmccar
aybe you were the kid in high school who never had to take home a book- you just listened, and you got it. If that was the case for you, then I would recommend The Red Letters Project, a very cool 3-disc collection of the book of Matthew (more specifically, only Jesus’ spoken words) set to rock music.
It is quite a thing, and not what I had expected upon popping it into my car’s CD player. I expected, well, songs. This project is almost more of a Broadway attempt, with Jesus’ words unfolding in dramatic monologue. It takes some getting used to.
Still, it made an impression and was an overall creative & enjoyable way to approach and think through Jesus’ words. This is not an everyday collection, but makes for interesting listening, particularly if you are an audible learner/thinker.
Oct 10th, 2010
danlewis
The concept of Jesus’ words in audio is unique and creatively exciting, however this was not reflected in the Red Letters Project.
Oct 25th, 2010
Pam Hogeweide
test
Oct 25th, 2010
Pam Hogeweide
Ok, here’s the dealio:
I really wanted to like this latest attempt to put sacred text to music. Truly. I did. I scanned through every song on all 3 disks. Twice. Every…song. Did I say that I did it twice?
The voices were good. Mostly. Some of the riffs were really good, especially the bluesy Vineyards on Disc 2.
But it just didn’t work. Clunky, and…well, way too whiteboyish. Like you know when you see those white kids at the mall trying to get their ghetto vibe on and look street smart but instead they come off like a confused misfit trying on someone else’s fashion identity ’cause they don’t know what to wear?
Well….yeah, it’s like that.
I appreciate the effort, totally get it. Valiant try.
Taking a book, any book, and trying to sing it line by line, word for word, is just boring. B-o-r-i-n-g.
You can’t make it work.Though I will say the Native American track on I think the first disc came as closer than any other track.
Here’s what I suggest to the whoevers are behind this project and invested a lot of time and $$$ into it:
Turn the songwriters loose. Let them transform those red letters into true songs without the leash of literal interpretation. Creativity is strangled by that leash! Turn ‘em loose, cut the effin leash, and trust your creative team to write their hearts out – uncensored and disinhibited.
I’d be willing to give a project like this one another go if the songwriters were turned loose and the whiteboy thing stripped naked. The red letters of Jesus need to be unconstrained by their man-given red hue.
So when I was done listening to this project I thought, What am I gonna do with this set? Give it to Goodwill? Send it back? Toss it?
Oh, wait, I know…I’ll give it to a youth pastor!
He had no idea…..
Oct 25th, 2010
hoffmannhouse
Red Letters Turn Pale
[I've asked fellow pastor Peter White to review The Red Letters Project. You can find Peter on Facebook at facebook.com/peterjwhite. Thanks, Peter!]
The Red Letters Project: Book of Matthew boasts itself as “an electrifying performance of rock music recounting every word spoken by Jesus Christ in the Book of Matthew.” Two biases I should confess right off: One, I love music. Two, I love the words of Jesus in Scripture. So I expected to love this project. But I did not.
I had high hopes. As I put the disc on, I was imagining the ambient sounds of a Brian Eno, or soaring crescendos of a Sigur Ros, or ethereal guitars of an Explosions in the Sky, all highlighting and complementing words that have transformed history.
Rather, the first image in my head as the opening track “Fish for People” kicked off with a synth drum loop and the glam rock vocals was the Budweiser “Real Men of Genius” commercials of a few years back. And the next image was a Saturday Night Live parody of the Bible. Surely, this had to be wrong. It would be one thing if the creators had tongue firmly in cheek, in the vein of stuffchristianslike.net, but judging from the promotional materials, they could not be more earnest.
The website for the project boasts, “Word for word, songs are formed without concern of rhyme or adding any definition.” And, I would add, without concern of hummable melody or catchy hook. That’s a critique; not a selling point. There is a reason most song lyrics rhyme. It sounds good. Imagine a word-for-word singing of Great Expectations. The New Living Translation (the text on which the project is based) sounds just as awkward in song.
In addition, I question the concept of “red letters,” that is, only utilizing the words of Jesus. If we believe at all Scripture is Holy Spirit-inspired (2 Timothy 3:16) than all the black letters are pretty important, too. Context matters in Scripture. Hearing only Jesus’ words is like hearing only one side of a phone conversation. Robbing those words of the context of Jesus’ actions and practices, makes those words all the more inaccessible, even to the absurd. To reference again the opening track, the words starting the whole recording are, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires. No! The scriptures say, People do not live by bread alone.” Unless you are following along with the text in front of you (which is provided as the liner notes) and see the three paragraphs of black letters that separate those sentences, this as a song lyric is non-sensical.
I worried I was completely out of touch with the kids these days, so I shared this with some of the college students with whom I work. “I thought it was a little weird to be honest. I think it can sound a little awkward singing words that don’t rhyme, because Jesus didn’t rhyme,” one told me. Another said, “I would recommend it to that one lady who always gives very Christian gifts to everyone at Christmas.”
I have no qualms about the intentions of the creators. The creative possibilities of partnering music and Scripture are endless. I do, however, question their attention to popular music trends and their regard not just for Scripture but for music and art in general.
The words of Scripture, and the words of Jesus especially, deserve better.
postcards.pfte.org
Nov 5th, 2010
renee
Oh how I wanted to love this.
The idea of a musical CD that consists only of the words of Jesus is brilliant. I think it is fantastic to strip everything else away, and leave the listener to truly hear and soak in his words.
But unfortunately, this was not carried out well, in my opinion.
I don’t think that it didn’t work because Jesus didn’t speak right or the context gets even more removed when done like this (as others have said). I simply didn’t like the music. I just didn’t think it was that good.
This made me feel old, and it made me feel sad. I really wanted to love this. But I didn’t.
Perhaps for people out there, this is made up of great music, and they will enjoy it. I hope so- for the idea is a treasure.
Nov 8th, 2010
aaronloy
…Now I do my best to stay positive on here. By nature, I am a pretty positive, hopeful guy. But every now and then I come across something so awful that nothing positive can be said. (Considering that I have been told to be brutally honest in these reviews), I introduce to you The Red Letters Project. The Red Letters Project claims to be a “one-of-a-kind Rock and Pop tour-de-force built on the real Rock, Jesus…blending the timeless life-changing text with a musical medium resonant with a new generation.” Doubtful.
In reality, the multiple cd set takes all of the “red letters’ found in Matthew and sets them over poor, uninspired music. Think of taking the most powerful message in the history of mankind and then singing the words over the worst of Christian radio. It’s unmelodic, void of style and originality, full of awkward vocal flow, without any sense of poetry or rhythm, and well, just plain bad.
I laughed. I cringed. I almost cried. I give it one out of five stars.
Nov 22nd, 2010
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