K

With unusual honesty and eloquence, Justin McRoberts captures a seeker’s moments of rapture and despair on K. The album features rerecorded songs from the Christian singer/songwriter’s C, M, and Y EPs, along with three well-chosen covers. Departing from the stripped-down sound of the original versions, McRoberts fleshes out his tunes with moody guitars and unsettling keyboards, landing somewhere between Elliott Smith and Lyle Lovett in feel. The lyrics make the strongest impression here—songs like “Must Be Hell on You,” “Diseases That Have Cures," and “Ain’t No Lyin’ Man” are brooding meditations on faith and doubt that cut far deeper than typical God-centered pop/rock. “Remember Me, Jesus” and “Where All the Colors of the World Collide” are unusually powerful expressions of spiritual need and redemption. McRoberts’ vocals are by turns forlorn, pain-wracked, and exalted, equal to the weighty content of his words. Evocative renditions of the hymns “Pass Me Not” and “God Be With You” and a smoldering cover of Keith Green’s “My Eyes Are Dry” complement the original material.