John Darnielle’s proposal carried an awkward sort of logic: he and Adeem the Artist should make a contemporary Christian record in Nashville. For a songwriter whose life had passed through fundamentalism, chaplaincy and agnosticism, the idea offered a way to revisit familiar material from a changed position.
The result is Christians for Goliath, arriving December 11 on Four Quarters Records / Thirty Tigers. Darnielle produced the 11-song collection, which draws on contemporary Christian music alongside gospel, country, blues and folk.
Their working relationship grew out of a friendship formed after Adeem toured with The Mountain Goats. Darnielle had long been a songwriting hero to them, making his encouragement consequential. When Adeem shared the album’s eventual title song, his response helped move a personal piece of writing toward a larger recording project.
Adeem returned to songs and prayers written across 15 years. Some dated to their work as a chaplain at the Port of Newark; others came from subsequent periods outside organized religion. That span gives the album several versions of its author to contend with, including the fundamentalist child, punk Christian musician, queer country singer and agnostic parent.
The lead single, “Hard to Get”, makes the collaboration explicit, featuring The Mountain Goats and arriving with an official lyric video. It honors Rich Mullins, whose writing and radical generosity had shaped Adeem’s early relationship with Christian music.
Mullins and Darnielle occupy different places in that history, but the single brings their influence together. One helped Adeem understand the emotional and spiritual possibilities of an album; the other became a friend capable of helping them revisit those possibilities. The collaboration belongs to the record’s subject as much as its credits.
Other guests include Black Guy Fawkes on “Statue of Jesus” and Amelia Riggs on “Hymn for Squirrels.” Across the collection, the questions extend to gender, family, religious harm and the search for a sustainable faith outside orthodoxy. Pre-orders and pre-saves are open for an album built from material that had been waiting, in some cases, for years.
