Full Heart Music

Release Date: May 8^th 2020

Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre

Ellie Holcomb – Constellations (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

1. Constellations

Ellie Holcomb has been in and around the music industry for a while. From albums like As Sure as the Sun and Red Sea Road, and children’s EP’s Sing: Creation Songs and Sing: Remembering Songs, you can find all things Ellie on our website here through reviews of her previous albums…what she has delivered to us time and time again are just honest songs delving into feelings and things that may not have been discussed had it been for the way of mainstream CCM media- Ellie’s music tries to buck that radio-friendly trend, with songs that permeate into the soul of people hearing, melodies that get to the heart of what it means to live as a Christian in a fallen world. Enter in her brand-new song ‘Constellations’ upon the heels of her second children’s EP and children’s book, and with one listen to this track, I can safely assume that this upcoming album/EP/project from Ellie (of which I have certainty that this new song will be on it) is fast becoming one of my most anticipated, with this song arguably one of my favourites of 2020 thus far.

‘…I wrote this song with David Leonard and Jon Guerra, and while we were together, we got into this conversation about how each of us have walked through dark nights of the soul. I’ve walked through that personally, and I’ve walked through that in community, and I think collectively, as a country and as a globe, we are in a really hard season of collective grief and suffering. I was planning to put this song out on my new record that I’m working on, but it just feels like the time for this song is right now…This is probably the most raw song I’ve ever written, and the vocal that’s on the recording is actually the vocal I recorded the first time I ever sang the song. This song is for the moments when you want to shake your fist at the sky because this life hurts. It breaks. It ends. It confounds us, and it confuses us. It makes sense to me that this earth is not our home. But while we’re in this chaos, desert valley, dust place, there is an echo from somewhere else that reminds us that we are not alone. That is my hope for this song…’

There is nothing much more to say that this quote above by Ellie herself hasn’t already said. The song is raw, its honest, it reminds us of God’s closeness to us through the trials. It is through the constellations of stars that we see above in the sky, that we can be reminded of God being all-powerful and all-knowing, creating the vastness which is this galaxy, but still being intimate and in fellowship and relationship with each of us, shown through His sacrifice through Jesus on our behalf. ‘Constellations’ is a song that ought to give us a lot of comfort during a season like this- while the song itself musically, doesn’t really kick off- it’s just the acoustics, vocal and string instruments, the lyrics hauntingly compel us all to understand that ‘…out here in the dark, underneath a canopy of stars, constellations falling from Your heart tell me that I’m not alone…’ This is a song of longing, of wanting, of anticipation and expectation as we wait and see what we believe the Lord will bring from this COVID-19 experience, and watch and be amazed of what we assume was the lessons learnt from all of this, and understand that what we have to know from this pandemic is far greater than what we have assumed to understand. ‘Constellations’ requires us to leave all our preconceptions of this pandemic at the door, and travel through and wait at the feet of Jesus like Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, did in the Bible. ‘Constellations’ is a track full of poignancy and life-changing moments of realisation, as I’m sure people are to be impacted and changed, whenever they hear it. Well done Ellie for such a raw and honest song, can’t wait to whenever the next album releases, after the pandemic is over…

Score: 5/5

RIYL: Steven Curtis Chapman, Nichole Nordeman, Jason Gray, Andrew Peterson, Bebo Norman