Why so downcast?

There are a couple of reasons to be excited about the new Sons of Korah album.

1. The Melbourne outfit, specialising in setting the Biblical Psalms to music, have not released an album since 2005. They've just done a lot of live shows, which have been great, but, as any Sufjan Stevens fan will know, an awesome live show is still no substitute for an awesome new album. The same goes for Sons of Korah.

2. Their albums - fairly prolific from 1999 to 2002 then disappearing until 2005 - have continued to get better and better. Although few songs ever compare to the heart-wrenching closer to 2001's "Shelter" ("The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart"), the consistency and variety of 2002's "Redemption Songs" and 2005's "Resurrection" were unparalleled in their earlier efforts. So, if they continued to develop as those albums promised they would, 2008's "Rain" was sure to be their best so far.

And the good news? "Rain" is brilliant.

My brother always complained that, where the Psalms themselves vary dramatically in style and mood, Sons of Korah's renditions always sounded a bit too "sameish" to really reflect the emotional tenor of their source material. That, of course, is a complaint that isn't really justified by close listening. On the surface, much of what they do sounds "nice", but closer listens reveal much emotional tension and diversity. They've also covered a very wide range of styles across their previous albums, although always working within an organic and essentially "folky" (and thus fairly timeless) framework. Nevertheless, "Rain" does away with all such complaints altogether. When the Psalmists despair, so does the music. When they fume with anger, the music fumes. There's an experimental spirit here that has always been in Rod Gear's work but has not always pervaded the music that he and Matt Jacoby have produced together. Here that spirit is given full reign. And, when the Psalmist calls on God to break the jaw of his enemies, the eery double vocal overlay captures that feeling with frightening immediacy. It may not be the most loving of emotions, but still one that most people who have ever had an enemy can relate to.

I have long felt that the Psalms should be the fundamental framework for all Christian art. There's emotional complexity here that most Christian music or literature is just crying out for. The Psalmists don't apologise for their emotions. They don't go in for any of the "serenity now" crap that too many Christians think is Biblical and not, in fact, from "Seinfeld". They say when they feel bad. They say when they doubt, or feel distant from God, or don't know what to believe anymore. And yet they always find hope. And yet? No, it isn't in spite of their openness. It's because. They bring themselves to God as they are, and the healing that results is impossible to achieve otherwise.

I'm delighted that "Rain", more than any of the previous Sons of Korah albums, fully captures that emotional spectrum, and the catharsis the album achieves is consequently far greater than before. And they've even saved some of my favourite Psalms for this album, and many Psalms that have been great comforts to me in the past few months. Set to music, as they were always intended to be, those Psalms are now still more comforting.

But still no Psalm 23. When, I wonder, will they do that one?