Leon Bridges Embraces The Lover’s Soul On River

Leon Bridges Coming Home Vinyl LP (click here)

Leon Bridges has put out one of the most soulful albums I’ve heard in a long time. But it wasn’t until I paid attention to “River” that I truly fell in love with the ideas pushed on the record. It’s in this song, that the nature of love is captured. But not just emotional connections with someone, but rather a larger scope. Obviously, music means different things to different people, lyrics can mean something but end up painting something else. For me, it is the structure of “River” that gets me every time.

A simple man’s song turns into a beautiful, soulful institution. It’s not just about love for someone else, if you think about it. You can think about it in terms of God, losing a loved one, church, sanctuary, or just home. I recall that in 2011 when I stepped off an airplane headed home, divorced, saddened, and lost, a song could bring me hope. Little did I know that the soundtrack for that memory would be this. It’s in the lyrics of “River” that my eyes bring about a sense of loss, communication, divorce, and sin. I grew up religious, and you know what, this is a religious song at times. “As my sins flow down the Jordan”, a reference that is so good, and such a wonderful note.

“Take me to your river, I want to know”

It’s in the lyrics below that I truly come apart, and perhaps you know it too. Perhaps you feel it.

“Oh, I wanna come near and give ya
Every part of me
But there is blood on my hands
And my lips aren’t clean”

Wow. Whether you have lost a love, you married the wrong person, you’re divorced, you’re young, you’re religious, or you just love good lyrical content, this is by far one of the most memorable lines I’ve heard in a long time.

Leon Bridges creates a portrait of so much in this song. So much so that I cannot recommend you picking up his latest. Check out the music video for “River” below, and see why this is such a powerful song. Wipe the tears, this is a song of incredible glory.



You can pick up Leon Bridges "Coming Home" on vinyl LP here.

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