Capitol CMG / The Young Escape LLC
Release Date: January 28th 2022
Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre
The Young Escape – Broken is Beautiful – Single (Amazon mp3/iTunes)
Track Listing:
- Broken is Beautiful
The Young Escape have had a choppy music career of sorts. Since siging to Capitol CMG in 2017 and releasing their chart-topping radio single ‘Good Life’, we assumed that there would be a full-length album releasing at some point. Singles like ‘Neverfade’, ‘Love Me Like You’, ‘So Alive’, ‘Count on Me’ and ‘It’s Gonna Get Better’ [not reviewed!] all followed on from ‘Good Life’, and while no full-length album surfaced from all these years, the band nevertheless still put on a high-energy show (from all the hand-held camera clips I’ve seen on youtube), and their music has always had a sense of urgency and purpose. Mckenna, Ryan Krysten and Luke Johns make up this all-sibling band, and quite possibly one of the most up-and-coming and breakout CCM bands I’ve heard, even though their debut single released 5 years ago. I’m still hoping and praying for a debut full-length album whenever it comes, but as of right now, I need to take what I can get. And right now, it’s ‘Broken is Beautiful’, a song that released at the end of January 2022.
The song itself doesn’t really invent the wheel. There’s other pop/CCM artists out there that are continually putting out great music, artists like Francesca Battistelli, TobyMac, Building 429, Mike Donehey, Natalie Grant, Jordan Feliz, for KING & COUNTRY and MercyMe. While I’d love to place this sibling band in this list, I’d have to say that the band themselves haven’t released enough music material to even have that conversation. The band has always shown glimpses of brilliance with every single release they’ve unveiled, but without a full-length album, unfortunately they’ll forever be remembered as ‘the single band’…which at times, I’ve found myself calling them, as well. Not by intention of course. But to be honest, I kinda forgot that The Young Escape were even a band, until their 2021 release of ‘Count on Me’. Now here we are around a year later, and the Johns siblings are at it again- another single. While I’m really, really hoping that they would make an album at some point, I’m just happy that they’re still making music. The song itself speaks volumes about people’s worth, and how our brokenness and the things we go through, sometimes on a daily basis, are beautiful to God.
Because of the fact that whatever we’ve experienced will be used by Him for His glory and our good, comforts us all the more, about His love and grace for us, and understanding fully that nothing is wasted in this life, even all the things that we’ve done or that has been done for (and sometimes to) us, seems to be all for nought. ‘Broken is Beautiful’ seems to be a dichotomous statement, and quite frankly, it is. But we all know that God works in an upside-down kingdom way, and so this oxymoronic statement of how a broken thing can be beautiful, is something that can be only fully understood through the lens of Christ and His grace and mercy. The reason why brokenness is beautiful is because what comes out of the brokenness, and the things we’ve learnt from it, can be beautiful to someone else experiencing the exact same thing. For people to feel as though their experiences are seen and understood, is to know that people have gone through what they have. And thus, part of the reason why we experience these things, is to develop a more sensitive and empathetic heart, for people that we may not have related to in the first place. God doesn’t cause the bad things to occur, but He will take the most broken things in our lives, and craft it into something beautiful and unique, allowing our lives to testify to His mercy and grace as we live our lives as vessels for Him to work in. A song that has become a fan-favourite of mine these last few months, well done McKenna and the rest of the band for this new single. Maybe a full-length album in the future? Who knows?
Score: 4/5
RIYL: Britt Nicole, Tenth Avenue North, Hillsong Y&F, for KING & COUNTRY, Riley Clemmons, Cimorelli