Big Daddy Weave ‘When the Light Comes’

Big Daddy Wave
When the Light Comes
(Curb | Word Entertainment)

In the four years since Beautiful Offerings, the Big Daddy Weave family has encountered a life-altering series of trials. The list of challenges is sobering: a long-awaited pregnancy followed by miscarriage, Jay Weaver’s life-threatening infection and double amputation, the loss of two fathers of band members, and a cancer diagnosis for another parent. It would be understandable for a band hit so hard if they chose to fold up the tent and call it quits.

Instead, they found healing in music. Creating this collection of new songs helped the band affirm their faith in a God who makes all things new, and light a path back to joy. Given the circumstances, much of When the Light Comes is surprisingly buoyant and punchy. The pop hooks are strong, though there are just a couple of instances when they don’t quite line up with the tenor of the lyrics.

A standout is “I Know,” a modern psalm of confession and affirmation. This is the sort of song that could not be delivered authentically had it not been won by a season of pain. It’s also a song that will surely lead countless others through their own suffering.

—Mark Geil