Ready or not, here we go into a new era of music! With fresh faces, the ease of making high-quality songs from a laptop in home studios, and even unorthodox ways of breaking into the industry, this is not your dad's Christian music. David Kushner joins the growing ranks of artists who develop an audience via a social media platform like TikTok before launching a music career in earnest. With viral hits like "Mr. Forgettable" (2022) and "Daylight" (2023), Kushner looks to capitalize on that momentum with his debut album titled, The Dichotomy, in 2024.

The press release describes it as David's personal story of, "overcoming darkness and sin, highlighting his increasing desire to honor Jesus as he moves towards the light." The album's seventeen tracks are split into four sections building from the struggle with lust, jealousy, conflict, and anger to a growing desire for Christ and His healing. I also heard the album was being categorized as "gothic pop," which further piqued my interest. With that intriguing setup, and my limited previous experience with the artist, I began my journey with The Dichotomy.

First things first, I give David high marks for the concept, but this is largely a miss. In a musical landscape where it would be easy to keep pumping out individual songs, he went the album route. As a major album appreciator, I give him full kudos there. However, The Dichotomy is virtually seventeen tracks of the same song with little to no variance musically. "Daylight" was one of the previously released singles and nearly every other album song follows that formula. Kushner starts each tune in his lower (and we are talking low here) register for the verses, utilizing darker piano chords, and then sweeps up into his higher register for the chorus with the same stomp-clap drumbeat. It works with minor nuance for a few tracks, but doesn't hold up across all seventeen songs.

However, there are some standouts, and the tracks that worked do so extremely well, namely "Flesh x Blood," "Humankind," "Universe," "California Nights," and "Daylight." The former song, "Daylight," puts a spin on the thoughts of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, with Kushner's lyrics, "There's darkness in the distance/I'm begging for forgiveness/But I know I might resist it oh /Oh I love it and I hate it at the same time." This truly is the thesis of the album, I'm just disappointed that the song is buried at the end of the album.

Lyrically, there is far too much time spent on the struggle with sin in the first thirteen of the album's songs. I appreciate a long setup before the turn, but this crossed the line into nearly celebrating and wallowing in temptation. The risk of spending so long in the shadows is that a less patient listener would never make it to the more hopeful final four tracks. Indeed, most modern listeners will likely listen to a playlist with individual songs ripped from the context, missing the larger narrative.

Ultimately, The Dichotomy would have been more effective as a five to seven-song EP. There just is not enough variety for it to hold up to the weight of the seventeen-song concept. It was a mighty swing, but this time it was a miss for me. I'll keep my eye on David Kushner because there is undeniable talent there, but for now, I'll stick with a select few songs for the playlist.

- Review date: 8/28/24, written by Josh Balogh of Jesusfreakhideout.com

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