Sower is a throwback band in many ways, recovering both a guitar-driven alternative rock style that's been neglected over the past several years, and a level of spiritual conviction and honesty that has also become less common. After a few strong EPs released in 2024, I WANT TO SEE CLEARLY marks the project's debut full-length album, and cements another strong moment in Sower's mission to deliver well written, biblically informed music. While the recent volume of releases isn't unusual for a newly active project, Sower is a project of veteran songwriter Eric Tuffendsam, and this experience clearly translates to an excellent level of quality in both composition and production.

I WANT TO SEE CLEARLY strikes an excellent balance between musical variety and cohesiveness. While songs touch on influences from spacious post-rock ("Born Again") pop-punk ("Help My Unbelief") to ethereal indie rock ("If You Don't the Church"), the bulk of the music reflects various styles of early 2010s alternative rock, recalling bands like Abel, Abandon Kansas, or Copeland (at their louder moments). Even within individual songs, the music rises, falls, and moves between different ideas without ever losing cohesion.

Album highlight "Two Edged Sword" starts with a casual combination of atmospheric sounds and simple chords, building into an upbeat riff-driven track within the first minute, before dropping back into ambiance and chords. This cycle continues, taking the progression that would normally happen across the entirety of a song and repeating it with each verse/chorus pairing. It's not the craziest of progressive songwriting, but it brings both welcomed variety to a genre that can often rely too heavily on convention and songwriting skilled enough to execute it.

The album adopts a somewhat similar approach to its lyrical themes. While it bounces between moments of personal reflection ("Born Again"), theological exposition ("Two Edged Sword"), pastoral admonition ("Do Not Be Conformed"), and criticism of both secular ("Hollywood") and Christian ("If You Don't Love the Church") culture, every track is incredibly focused on biblical themes and frequently quotes directly from Scripture. Regardless of topic, every song is highly conversational in style. Most of the time, this works great - it's engaging, easy to follow, and allows for minimal ambiguity. For some listeners more accustomed to more poetic approaches to lyrical writing, it may take a few tracks to settle in, although, for album listeners this is smartly handled by situating the more personal tracks up front that most naturally lend themselves to this approach.

While the scriptural richness and honesty makes for a very strong album throughout, it may be the moments of criticism that are most interesting. Certainly, the topics addressed on "Hollywood" are not anything new for Christian artists to address, even if they are more pointed here. "If You Don't Love the Church," on the other hand, is a much less common entry, as it addresses the frequent pattern of people neglecting their relationship with their church, the theological roots of church community in the creation, and the importance of individual involvement and participation for one's own sanctification. It's a concise and well-constructed song, made all the more important by the fact that throughout the history of Christian music there have unfortunately been far more songs minimizing the importance of the local church.

Overall, I WANT TO SEE CLEARLY is a really strong full-length debut album. Both musically and lyrically, Sower approaches songwriting with an admirable level of craft and nuance. It's a welcome entry into a genre somewhat lacking in great options the past few years, and should create excitement to see what the project will continue to do moving forward.

- Review date: 5/23/25, written by Kevin McGuire of Jesusfreakhideout.com

Record Label: None
Album length: 10 tracks: 42 minutes, 13 seconds
Street Date: May 23, 2025
Buy It: Amazon Music

1. Born Again (4:30)
2. Help My Unbelief (4:12)
3. I WANT TO SEE CLEARLY (4:03)
4. Do Not Be Conformed (4:31)
5. Eyes to see, but do not see (3:40)
6. Hollywood (3:33)
7. Two Edged Sword (4:03)
8. If You Don't Love the Church (4:17)
9. Clearly Perceived (4:12)
10. Your Kingdom Come (5:16)