Every two years, singer/songwriter Bebo Norman undergoes what he calls an extended therapy session. The intensive process isn’t always smooth sailing, but it does result in ten or twelve moments of completion—a clear look back through his own window at a story God is telling. Also known as making a new album, it’s an exercise in discovery that Bebo takes to remarkable depths on his seventh studio project, Ocean. What he has found is the freedom to lose himself.
“My life is a dream come true,” says Norman. “I’m given the opportunity to create records that become sort of like a topographical map of all my past experiences. And today I’m happily married with two boys that I love. Still, I find myself looking up and asking, ‘Who am I outside of music and beyond being a husband and father? How do I hide myself in who Christ is rather than relying on my own identity in the real world?’ Every song on Ocean speaks to that idea.”
In several cases, the album’s concept splashes into your mind quite literally. Outstretched opener “Everything I Hoped You’d Be” is poetic, folk-bred rock full of natural imagery to describe a choppy spiritual journey from deserts to mountains, with Bebo realizing God will be the water I drink forever / Let it wash me over, oh my soul. In another moment of identity crisis-turned-catharsis, the beautiful “Sing Over Me” begs the voice that calms the waves to cut through life’s noise and find me . . . so tired of hiding behind these songs. As sure as he’s found, Norman converts the title track into a prayerful worship anthem perceiving the Lord as an ocean that I can get lost in / I’m drowning in Your love.
CLICK To Listen to – BEBO NORMAN – “GOD OF MY EVERYTHING”——>bebogodo
