Provident Label Group

Release Date: January 13^th 2023

Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre

Matt Maher – The In-Between (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

1. The In-Between

I need to make a confession…I haven’t seen The Chosen. I know that can now be considered an unpopular opinion but, to tell the truth, the fact of the matter is this- that the show that has now been considered to be the pinnacle of Christian media within the last few years, hasn’t reached the eyes of myself yet. Sure, this show has most definitely been on my radar, but it’s just that in this busyness we call ‘life’…well, I just haven’t gotten around to it just yet. Nevertheless, I do know the cultural impact The Chosen has had on the church, on the wider community, even on non-believers, and it is nothing short of remarkable and miraculous. It has reached more audiences than ever imaginable, and so…I will watch the global phenomenon very soon. Until such a time, I guess I have to settle for Matt Maher’s new single ‘The In-Between’, a song that was based off of a scene in The Chosen, right? Matt has been in and around the music industry for a looonnng time- all the reviews that we’ve written about Matt and his music in the site can be seen here. A review of this most recent 20-song 2022 album The Stories I Tell Myself is coming soon, so until then, what’s the next best thing? Why, a ‘review’ of ‘The In-Between’, of course!

‘The In-Between’ was released late 2022; and was written by Matt himself about a very early episode of the show when it was in its first season. As Matt states himself, ‘…in the process of connecting with Dallas, I basically shared with him a song I had recently written with another artist in town that was inspired by a scene in the second episode of the first season of the show. I sent the song to Dallas and didn’t realize that it was actually the first scene that they ever wrote for the show. So the song meant a lot to him. It connected a ton with the staff, and the production team, other members of the creative team with the show, and we just sort of kept dialoguing about it. [Dallas] really felt passionately that we should shoot a music video for it. What we did was we went to all the sets and basically filmed me in these places where characters in the show had their in between moments or encounters with Jesus…[the song itself is] inspired by this conversation that Mary Magdalene has with Nicodemus, and she says, ‘All I know is that I was one way, and now I’m completely different and the thing that happened in between was him.’ So we filmed all these moments of me and the places where these characters were when they had their moments with Jesus…that just sort of sums up everyone’s encounter with the gospel. As we were writing the song, it was just thinking about the transformation of what happens in the heart of somebody who’s encountered the love of God…’

And so…there you have it. ‘The In-Between’. And what better way to ‘review’ it, than to hear it straight from Matt himself? ‘The In-Between’ is from a scene in the TV show that I haven’t seen as of yet, so maybe the impact of the specific scene, together with the song, hasn’t hit me yet. Nevertheless, I do know that God is using The Chosen (in all its imperfections) to draw people closer to Himself, and that is no less different in ‘The In-Between’ too. As Matt continues to relay, ‘…I think the thing I love about [The Chosen] is the humanity of it. I think that we’ve kind of moved from being a culture that tells stories by listening, an auditory-based culture, to a visual-based culture. So now we tell stories with images. Scripture stands at an interesting point with that because the Bible is something you read. But what this show is doing is it’s helping, really for the first time in 2000 years, it’s giving people a visual representation of the life of Jesus. And it’s inviting them, in some ways, to step into the story on a very human level…’ The Chosen is indeed a reminder of the power of God through film and visual representation, that the truth which we know to be of Christ Jesus, can and should be relatable, for a new generation, which is exactly what the TV show is doing- contextualizing the gospel for a generation who may not have heard about Jesus or God in their entire lives. Matt Maher has contributed to the show in a great, tangible way through ‘The In-Between’. Here’s hoping and praying that other artists, be it Christian or mainstream, can hopefully follow suit. Well done Matt for this inspiring and uplifting song. Now onto watching the show, to see what all the hype is about.

‘…I think cinema has a long standing history of showing the power of when you take all these forms of art, and fuse them together. You’ve got acting, you’ve got imagery, you’ve got set design, you’ve got costumes, you’ve got lighting, and you’ve got sound effects. And then you’ve got special effects now, and you’ve got music, and you put it all together, and it makes for compelling stories. I think when people who believe in the redemptive value of art, to do that, to remind us of the things that are really important, and to help us get in touch with our deepest longings, and sometimes our deepest fears, sometimes our deepest desires, it’s powerful truth telling. I’m still a firm believer in artists, that beauty, it’s considered one of the three transcendentals, it’s one of the ways in which we can actually come to see glimpses of God. Film and music working together is such a powerful combination. I wanted to do film scoring when I was a kid. This was like my very small, little, taste of it, which was great. I wasn’t prepared for the part about me being on the screen, but I’m getting used to it…’

Score: 5/5

RIYL: Kari Jobe, Cody Carnes, TAYA, UNITED