The Gospel According to Water
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- Groundlift Research & Development (Los Angeles, California)
- Sleeper Cave Records (Northampton, Massachusetts)
| The Gospel According to Water | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 15, 2019 | |||
| Recorded | June 10–11 & 28, 2019 | |||
| Studio |
| |||
| Length | 53:47 | |||
| Label | EarMusic | |||
| Producer | Joe Henry | |||
| Joe Henry chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 85/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Under the Radar | 8.5/10[3] |
The Gospel According to Water is the fifteenth studio album by American musician and producer Joe Henry. It was released in November 15, 2019 under EarMusic Records.[4][5]
The Gospel According to Water was met with universal acclaim reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 85, based on 6 reviews[1]
In a year-end essay for Slate, Ann Powers cited The Gospel According to Water as one of her favorite albums from 2019 and proof that the format is not dead but rather undergoing a "metamorphosis". She added that concept albums had reemerged through the culturally-relevant autobiographical narratives of artists such as Henry, who, "faced with a daunting cancer diagnosis ... wrote a whole new hymnal, in the form of a song journal written at 4 a.m."[6]
Track listing
All songs written by Joe Henry
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Famine Walk" | 4:58 |
| 2. | "The Gospel According to Water" | 6:10 |
| 3. | "Mule" | 3:43 |
| 4. | "Orson Welles" | 5:43 |
| 5. | "Green of the Afternoon" | 4:17 |
| 6. | "In Time for Tomorrow" | 3:41 |
| 7. | "The Fact of Love" | 4:30 |
| 8. | "Book of Common Prayer" | 3:30 |
| 9. | "Bloom" | 3:38 |
| 10. | "Gates of Prayer Cemetery, No. 2" | 2:50 |
| 11. | "Salt and Sugar" | 4:47 |
| 12. | "General Tzu Names the Planets for His Children" | 3:12 |
| 13. | "Choir Boy" | 2:48 |
Personnel
- Joe Henry – vocals, acoustic guitars, electric guitars
- Patrick Warren – acoustic piano, additional keyboards
- John Smith – acoustic guitars
- David Piltch – electric bass (8)
- Levon Henry – clarinet, tenor saxophone
- JT Nero – vocals (6, 7)
- Allison Russell – vocals (6, 7)
Production
- Joe Henry – producer
- S. Husky Hoskulds – recording, mixing, mastering
- Andy Cass – additional recording
- Ryan Tanner – design, photography
