“Hard Love” by NEEDTOBREATHE ft. Andra Day, Saturday, August 27, 2022

I’ve written about the parallels between Christian Rock band NEEDTOBREATHE and Alternative Rock band Kings of Leon. But despite the bands’ similar origin stories, members growing up to ministers in very conservative backgrounds, Kings of Leon left their Christian upbringing and NEEDTOBREATHE embraced it. While NEEDTOBREATHE has had general market success, their fan base is mostly from Christian Hit Radio, to which the band does their duty to push the limits on songs like "Let's Stay Home Tonight" and "Clear" but ultimately keep the fires of sexiness under control.

TRADIG PUNCHES WITH THE HEART OF DARKNESS. “Hard Love” is a sequel to the band’s hit “Brother.” The song “Brother” was birthed out of a family conflict between founding members, brothers Bear and Bo Reinhart. The sibling rivalry came to a head during the recording of NEEDTOBREATHE’s record Rivers in the Wasteland. Like the Rolling Stone interview with Kings of Leon, the conflict between the brothers in NEEDTOBREATHE also became violent. Reconciliation from the event that threatened to rip the band apart helped the band produce their biggest hit. Returning to the theme of that song and the difficulty surrounding the band’s 2014 hit record, NEEDTOBREATHE recorded their sixth studio record H A R D L O V E. But the titular song would be released as a single in 2017, remixed and featuring Grammy-nominated R&B singer-songwriter Andra Day. The band also released a B-sides EP titled HARD CUTS: Songs from the H A R D L O V E Sessions. Not only did the EP feature the Andra Day version but also another remix featuring Serena Ryder as well as three songs not featured on the record. Yet another version of “Hard Love” appears on the soundtrack to the 2017 film The Shack featuring multi-platinum CCM singer Lauren Daigle.

WHEN THE WOLVES COME AND HUNT ME DOWN. “Hard Love” is based on Proverbs 17:3, and furthers the theme of reconciliation from immediate family to all people. The inspirational track with a “down-home feel” is an interesting piece of Christian media in its context of the so-called culture wars between the world and the evangelicals in the late ‘10s. My connection to mainstream CCM is quite limited these days, so I don’t know how typical a song like “Hard Love” is, but it seems that the sentiments raised in this song appeal to Christians and non-Christians alike, acknowledging that it is hard to love some people, but we have a Christian (or a human) duty to do so. But with such a duty comes a lot of stipulations from all sides: what about sinners, what about our fears of socialism, what about trauma, what about if the other person doesn’t accept me? Hard love isn’t about seeing eye to eye or being able to agree on anything. Sometimes it means, like in the case of NEEDTOBREATHE in 2021, that brothers even have to go their separate ways. Sometimes you can’t be around the ones you love and it’s healthy to take a break. But as Christ’s sacrosanct principle reminds us that the whole law and the prophets is summed up as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . . and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22: 26-40; Mark 12:30-31 NIV). The meme goes on with the Pharisees asking what about this person’s situation, and Jesus answers, “Did I stutter?”

Read the lyrics.

Andra Day version music video: