The sincerity of the latest effort from 1499, Love, is unassailable. In fact, it’s everywhere on this seven-cut affair. One can feel it in the titles of the songs, which include numbers like “How He Loves”, “Spirit Breaks Out”, and “Gratitude”. It’s evinced in the name of this collection of cuts, and certainly in the heartfelt vocals, which are greatly attributed to the stylistic renderings of Eric Welz and Carolyn Thomas.

The sincerity of the work becomes most manifest, perhaps, in the lyrics. Many of the tunes eschew the fast food, pop rhymes dominating the themes of most songs heard today, in favor of a more candid and truthful interpretation of honest sentiment.

“I depend on you for the sun to rise”, the female vocalist acknowledges on “Abide”, the leadoff record. “If the stars remain to worship so will I,” the lead singer, who’s most likely Welz, croons on “So Will I”. “His love is the hurricane and I am the tree,” the singer intones with a voice sweet and simple, bereft of the saccharine, and as artless as it is timeless.

It’s a delicious complement to another symbol of sincerity on this outing—the instrumentation. The piece is rife with rich, gargantuan keyboard chords, crispy clean pianos, and smoldering electric guitars that are too urbane to be rock. “Another in the Fire” is a wonderful testament to this fact, as it’s built around a clean piano riff and Thomas’ singing.

Although each of the tracks is a ballad, the band is able to endow them with a unique character so that the formula, if there is one, still manages to sound fresh. One can argue that the best of “Abide” comes when the drums and bass kick in—especially since a fair amount of the effort didn’t involve them.

Additionally, the songs are all characterized by a largeness of sound that gives them a certain sense of gravity not uncommon among gospel records. Such a backdrop is ideal for the unveiling of honest emotion, the likes of which border on being ardent on this album—and in the genre in general.