Fingers Crossed

Musically, no, this isn’t a very dynamic album... but the music isn’t the point, it’s the frame around the picture. Anyone who’s gone down an honest path with their faith ends up at this place, it’s a modern day Lamentations. It’s the cynicism that comes from a long struggle with real life. I didn’t like this album until I read the WORDS, and I saw that he was singing all the thoughts I’ve struggled to nail down over the last 20 years of my own faith. These aren’t songs you’ll ever hear on the radio, but you will hear in quiet conversation in bars and in parking lots and through tears on the phone with a friend. To be honest, the attitudes behind all these negative reviews are the driving forces behind albums like this. Try to HEAR what he’s saying, instead of just listening to be entertained. This album is beautiful... not like a prom queen, but like a suicide listing reasons to not go through with it. It’s more bitter than sweet, and if you’re not careful it will be too deep for you to see it.

This is someone to be pitied. Not enabled by purchasing this attempt at music. Truly sad.

And I’ll choose to love. Maybe not choose to listen to this album as much as the older ones, though.

I don’t know another album in which an artist opens up so deeply and profoundly about the loss in their life. It makes for beautiful art that engages the whole time. Derek - tough album to listen to, but I’m honored to have the privilege to do just that.

This album is artistically genius and painfully beautiful. It can be uncomfortable as it addresses the uncertainty that many people are experiencing today; but it is one of the greatest albums I’ve heard in a long time.

It’s appropriate for an honest look at faith, hurt, hang-ups, as well as the complexity of our brokenness. And yet God loves us in the midst of brokenness, what Henri Nouwen describes as our “belovedness”. This is by far my favorite album of his to date.

Derek, I'm sure it gets old having people who don't know you presume to have a right to speak into your life, but I have to try: please humble yourself and repent, and as God beckoned so often throughout the Scriptures, here's His call to you, "Return to Me." I think where everything went south for me was when you decided it was your place to call out the hypocrisy and superficiality of CCM and other elements of church/Christian life. Bottom line? That's God's place. He deals with hearts. We are to worry about our own. CCM, while I'm sure it has many issues, has been a life-changing Gospel force for many, many people, myself included. You used to have a part in that.

Derek....what has happened to you, buddy? I feel your ache, pain,and anger towards God, etc....but man...we're all watching you wreck your life, curse God and people who care about you, and alienate your fans right in front of our eyes. I listened to this album a few times, and for the life of me, I'm still deeply disturbed by the content.

this album is so honest, authentic, and truly one to put on repeat for hours. we've all known for years that derek is truly gifted and talented musician, but to gift us with a level of authenticity that we were never truly owed is what puts derek, and this album, on a whole new level. 10/10 would recommend.

Fingers Crossed offends and unsettles me... and that's why I need it. There's a constant debate about whether or not it's appropriate to separate an artist from their art – especially within a marketplace centered around a particular religious structure where an arist's morality is a part of their marketing strategy. On his latest release, Derek Webb makes that conversation impossible by inserting himself so fully and with so much vulnerability into his art that there is no distinction between it and the artist. This is a brave piece of art that I hope will be catalytic for a better conversation within the Church and beyond.