It's somewhat astounding how quickly Zach Williams has made the journey from "new artist" to beloved veteran of the music scene. It seems like only a few years ago that the dusty, heartfelt "Chain Breaker," off of his debut album, was a spark of a song on the radio that led to all sorts of gritty singer/songwriters having a chance in the sometimes sterilized and staid world of Christian music. Like Johnny Cash before him, Zach's testimony about the dark places he'd been in life spoke loudly through his music, and with his new album, Jesus Loves, this trend continues.

With the album release coming in a tense moment in our country, the title track serves a needed reminder to how the love of Jesus is at the heart of the gospel, and how Jesus' followers should relate to the world around us at large: "So come on in, the door is open / And the Savior's arms are too / The table's set, a seat is waiting / And He saved it just for you / So no more running No more hiding / Come on in and you will find / That you don't have to be enough / To be someone Jesus loves." With a great use of orchestration, the song ascends sonically in all the right ways, giving great emphasis to the ancient heart of the Christian faith, "Come on in, the door is open / And the Savior's arms are too."

The classic country-rock of the following "Paradise," a wonderful reminder of the new heaven and new earth, alternately snarls and soars with a veteran's skills. The soulful background singers on this track are worth the price of admission alone. The line "there ain't no trouble in paradise" could easily come off as hokey and cliched coming from other artists, but here Williams clearly understands the history of southern music songwriting and the authenticity of the delivery rings true.

Third track "I Killed A Man" may be shocking at first glance for an album that has the word "love" in the title, but Williams is likely trusting that his audience will quickly understand the baptism imagery (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus) that he is trafficking in here. And the song's unpacking of this imagery is consistent with the Bible's violent language used to describe salvation and the "death of the old" nature and creation of "the new man." This tough, ancient scriptural metaphor for the transformation that faith in Christ brings has been shocking audiences for thousands of years before Williams came along: "So I killed a man in the river / Yeah, I watched the current / Carry him away / Yeah, I killed a man down in the river / Yeah, I had to take a life to keep one out the grave."

Other highlights of the album are the harmonica-drenched finale of the epic "Friend In High Places," and the terrific Mumford & Sons stomp of "The Potter (Nothing Is Wasted)." And then the lighthearted "Church Kids" (sung with recent tourmates CAIN) ends a thematically heavy album with a light touch and bit of sing-along humor.

With Jesus Loves, Zach Williams proves that he is an artist with true staying power. The album has a great production quality that hearkens back to classic southern rock bands like The Allman Brothers and The Marshall Tucker Band, and is a full-fledged record in the classic sense. In these troubled times we live in, an album all about the furious love of Jesus is a welcome thing indeed.