Every Power Wide Awake by John Van Deusen, One Year Later

For a year now, I’ve told myself that I would write about John Van Deusen’s record Every Power Wide Awake. I began writing this post a month ago, and then it sat in the editing bay untouched since then. In that time, a lot of life has gone by, for better and worse. I’ve since seen John perform twice, and I’ve also interviewed him twice for my blog, We Are Mirrors. I’ve also endured a not-insignificant deal of hardship and general unpleasantness in life.

This record has only become more relevant and powerful in this latest tumultuous season of my life. Every Power Wide Awake is an important and essential release, one of this decade’s most noteworthy and exceptional “worship” albums.

A Contextual Appreciation

Part of EPWA’s significance comes from its context in John Van Deusen’s discography. Van Deusen fronted the indie rock band The Lonely Forest for nearly ten years. In that time the band earned national acclaim, touring with indie mainstays Death Cab for Cutie (whose guitarist at the time, Chris Walla, signed the band to his label to release and produce their LP, Arrows), appearing on Jimmy Kimmel, and receiving praise from NPR and KEXP. In 2014, The Lonely Forest dissolved and played their final show at the Seattle, Washington music festival Bumbershoot.

While some of the band’s lyrics, upon closer inspection, imply a faith background, The Lonely Forest could not be called a “Christian band.” Using coarse language and sometimes even getting into fights onstage, The Lonely Forest never targeted or appealed to a primarily Christian audience. However, Van Deusen has always been incredibly genuine and earnest in his writing and performing, which for many — including NPR — was the band’s primary draw.

When John Van Deusen began his 4-LP solo album series [(I Am) Origami] with The Universal Sigh, he didn’t deviate much from his former stylings, though his faith was slightly more apparent. The Universal Sigh feels like a mainly straightforward pop-rock record with a lot of heart and energy, brimming with honesty and at times incredibly intimate.

Then, in December 2017 with only a one-week promotional buildup, John Van Deusen released (I Am) Origami Pt. 2 – Every Power Wide Awake.

Vulnerable, Yet Unashamed

Van Deusen had this to say about the album in its liner notes:

Every Power Wide Awake is at its core, a collection of self-recorded songs that reflect my personal prayer life. Almost every morning, before my wife Annababe wakes up, I sit alone with black coffee and my Bible; reading and praying. These are the most precious moments of my day. This is when I feel most receptive to the voice of God. This is when I feel truly awake; open to the deeper things of the world, hovering above my busy, self-propelled lifestyle. It’s a kind of heaven …

… Every Power Wide Awake didn’t come together quickly; it took over two years of piecing things together like a jigsaw puzzle. During this time I battled my insecurities and fears about openly professing my faith in Jesus to my listener base. I also went back and forth with how to release all of the music (there were over 26 songs at one point). In the end, it seems that the straightest and simplest path is the best one; be honest and don’t over-extend your reach. Instead, simply walk forward with what you know to be true and don’t wait for the world to catch up.

So, here is this album; full of songs: some loud, some quiet. Often hectic and immature; just like my prayers in the morning. All of them straight from my messy inner sanctuary into your headphones or speakers.

Van Deusen put himself in an incredibly vulnerable place by releasing Every Power Wide Awake. In a region that’s statistically cold towards Christianity and with an audience that wasn’t necessarily spiritual, he had a lot to lose. However, while some awkwardness was apparent in his discussions, Van Deusen never apologized for his faith and remained sincere.

In Life as in Art

This attitude carried over to Van Deusen’s live performances. Back in August, I was able to attend a farewell show in Van Deusen’s hometown of Anacortes, Washington. Van Deusen, who moved to San Diego shortly after the show, played an acoustic set featuring some of The Lonely Forest’s most popular tracks, a couple songs from his forthcoming album Puck, and songs from the first two (I Am) Origami records. Though one of the songs from Every Power Wide Awake was unfortunately cut short by some technical difficulties, Van Deusen didn’t shy away from playing some of his most explicitly spiritual songs to the sold-out show.

Van Deusen acknowledged that his frankness about the subject matter might make some of the attendees uncomfortable, yet he nevertheless discussed, at length, the significance of his faith in Christ—both for his art and his life. Though I am now unable to remember his exact words (it has been some time since the show, after all), I do distinctly recall feeling encouraged and refreshed by his tone and attitude. John Van Deusen models an excellent way for Christian artists to talk about their faith to a secular audience.

The Record on Its Own Terms

While the context alone of Every Power Wide Awake makes it a fascinating release, the record boasts merits in its own right. Stylistically, it’s not a major departure in Van Deusen’s discography—a fairly straightforward indie rock record with an overall earnest delivery that at times peaks in vulnerable personal revelations. Though the style feels familiar for Van Deusen, the tone and content feel delightfully strange.

The nearly 11-minute title track — a multi-part epic which feels equally inspired by Van Deusen’s former Anacortes neighbor Phil Elverum, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Sufjan Stevens’ “All Delighted People” — well-represents the divine strangeness and grandeur that shoots through the record. The track layers piano and harp with clashing cymbals and roaring guitars that swell into a triumphant refrain—a musical representation of the densely-populated Dürer cover art. An anthem to human frailty and God’s majesty, the song stands as one of the most captivating compositions to come from “worship music” this decade.

Another highlight is “(I Am) Nothing,” which feels like a coda to “With Every Power Wide Awake” stylistically and lyrically. The track features background vocals and horn arrangements/performances by John Ringhofer of Half-handed Cloud, who also appears on the title track and “Interlude.”

“(I Am) Nothing” leads into “How Will You Wander, My Wayward Daughter?” which is the only track not primarily addressing God. Least like a worship song lyrically, it’s also the record’s most buoyant song musically. Positioned in the middle of the tracklist, it provides the record with some much-needed levity.

The record sports a few compositional tricks. For example, in “Calling All Cowards,” the song-ending dissonant strings cleverly imply that no pat solution exists for the deep disturbance that opens the song. While throughout the song, Van Deusen sings that “He is the light,” there still remains some dissonance and struggle between this light and the speaker’s downcast soul.

From the music alone, it might be easy to write off “Be Merciful to Me” as too plain or even bordering on cliché. However, Van Deusen’s honesty cuts through in the most piercing lyrics of the record. It’s a confessional prayer that’s raw, relatable, and undeniably sincere.

I should note as well how refreshing it is to listen to a worship album where there aren’t any glaring theological issues. Where too much contemporary worship proclaims misguided, harmful, or even heretical ideas, many of Van Deusen’s lines are pulled directly from Scripture. It also strikes a good balance between confession and praise. The record never feels self-focused, and the few moments that do put the speaker in the spotlight seem to exist only to further elevate God’s righteousness in comparison.¹

Conclusion

From his beginning in The Lonely Forest, John Van Deusen has always been about honesty and sincerity in his art. Applying this attitude when explicitly discussing his faith has resulted in the best album of his career. Perhaps it testifies to the brokenness of our times that a worship album now needs to take risks in order to remain orthodox. Every Power Wide Awake is a triumphant testimony to the reflection of God’s glory in the mirror of human frailty.  The earnestness of its confessions and the power of its proclamations are edifying and exhilarating.

The songs on Every Power Wide Awake feel lived-in — and they are, so they invite the listener to live with them, to likewise ponder and praise the mysteries and goodness of God. In the last year, these songs have spoken to me in some very dark times, and they have also been a vehicle through which I can praise God’s righteousness. I hope you’ll join me, and I hope that more artists will make records like this.

Every Power Wide Awake can be streamed and downloaded for free at the link below, but I highly suggest financially supporting this record and/or picking up the vinyl if you have a turntable.