Losing My Religion Kirk Franklin

• 1 Losing My Religion 03:20
• 2 Miracles 05:52
• 3 123 Victory 03:59
• 4 Road Trip 04:00
• 5 Pray For Me 04:46
• 6 Wanna Be Happy? 04:28
• 7 It's Time 04:05
• 8 True Story 04:19
• 9 Over 04:14
• 10 When 05:16
• 11 My World Needs You 07:03
• 12 Intercession 05:06
• 13 No Sleep Tonight 04:16
• 14 123 Victory (Remix) 03:59
• Total Runtime 01:04:43

Info for Losing My Religion

Multi-GRAMMY winning artist, songwriter, producer and music icon Kirk Franklin released his eleventh studio album last month titled Losing My Religion. He dives into deep issues surrounding what it means to be religious and a follower of Christ. To some, these two topics may be one and the same, but Kirk uses his music to share a powerful and refreshing message about stepping away from “rules without relationship,” and other things that only serve to divide the Church.

The title track, a spoken word piece, opens the album. The track is poetic but not musical, and the fact that Kirk Franklin chose to make this simply a spoken word piece without any added music demonstrates his desire to emphasize the message he is trying to convey. He says, “Religion is a prison, but truth sets us free.” When we get so wrapped up in the rules and traditions of religion, we can become imprisoned by them. Thus, he finishes the track saying, “I’m losing my religion, thank God. Helping you lose yours is my job.”

“Pray for Me” breaks away from the upbeat songs preceding it. It captures the raw honesty and brokenness of a person asking for prayer who feels like he’s “about to lose it all.” Kirk emphasizes the importance of valuing sincerity in prayer over “fancy words and colored lines.” The only instrument played in the song is soft piano, until it builds with strings and a choir singing the Lord’s Prayer. As the music changes, the lyrics do too. Kirk addresses not just his own need for prayer, but the whole world’s too. The song ends the way it began – in simple humility, asking for prayer.

“My World Needs You” features the talents of Sarah Reeves, Tasha Cobbs, and Tamela Mann. It conveys an inspiring message, calling on God to “fix what [we] see” in the world and also to “fix [us]” personally. Individual voices build into a chorus of voices proclaiming that the world needs God right now. The dynamics and frequent change of vocalists make the song flow beautifully.

Kirk Franklin has masterfully created an album with excellent music, talented vocalists, and an inspiring and challenging message woven into the songs. Losing My Religion may initially seem like an odd and even inappropriate name for an album in the Christian genre, but Kirk shares an important and convicting message that people’s relationship with Christ needs to be more than simply following rules, and going through the motions.

"No, the title of Kirk Franklin's 11th album is not a cover of the R.E.M. standard. It is, however, a provocative appellation for a modern gospel recording. "Losing My Religion" is named for the spoken word intro to these 13 tracks. It's a rhyming, socio-political-spiritual manifesto, an admonition to evangelists that religion masks God's love and mercy; it's a barrier rather than a bridge. This couldn't be more poignant in an era when religion (not faith) is a chosen weapon in America's culture wars: "I'm losing my religion, thank God/It's my job to help you lose yours." The rest is pure Kirk, much closer in sound and feel to the number one single "Wanna Be Happy" that makes such skillful use of Al Green's "Tired of Being Alone." Franklin enlists a brilliant cast of singers including Deonis Cook, Candy West, Chelsea West, Crystal Aiken, and Amber Bullock. The reggae jam "1-2-3 Victory" offers a monster of a bubbling bassline from Braylon Lacy (who also plays upright on "When" that also features vocal appearances from Lalah Hathaway and Kim Burrell). That's not to minimize regular bassist Keith Taylor's contribution and he's not only this band's anchor, but one of the funkiest players on the contemporary gospel scene. (Check him on the orchestral Sunday morning rave-up "It's Time," with guest vocalists Tasha Page-Lockhart and Zacardi Cortez.) The B-3-driven drama in "True Story" relates the twin plights of a single mother whose bills overwhelm her means, and a soldier who returns from battle only to encounter the violence raging on America's streets. The latter offers the musical vernacular of modern soul with a funky backbeat (provided by a cracking snare and a shimmering hi-hat groove) emboldened by strings and sweeping synths. A pair of ballads reveals vulnerability and need, the moving, "Pray for Me" and the tender "Intercession." "My World Needs You" commences tentatively and prayerfully, but becomes an awe-inspiring, anthemic altar call with vocalists Sarah Reeves, Tasha Cobbs, and Tamela Mann guesting. The set closes with the breakbeat-and-loop-driven "No Sleep Tonight," which underscores the exhortation in the title track. Its profession is that divine love and grace (not religion) are the world's answers. Franklin continues his life's work on Losing My Religion. He doesn't merely inspire this time, but directly engages and confronts Christian believers to leave judgment behind and practice what the New Testament preaches: acceptance and forgiveness -- because it has been shown to them. The spoken quotation of John 3:20 that closes the album is a fitting, bracing coda. Losing My Religion is typical Franklin: a set of carefully written, arranged, and produced songs that are fantastically performed." (Thom Jurek, AMG)

Tasha Page-Lockhart, vocals
Zacardi Cortez, vocals
Kim Burrell, vocals
Lalah Hathaway, vocals
Sarah Reeves, vocals
Tamela Mann, vocals
Tasha Cobbs, vocals
Kirk Franklin, piano, keyboards
Shaun Martin, keyboards, piano
Keith Taylor, bass
Robert Searight, drums
Braylon Lacy, bass, upright bass
Mark Lettieri, lead guitar
Kermit Wells, Hammond B-3
Max Stark, programming
Philip Lassiter, trumpet, flugelhorn
Tyler Summers, tenor and baritone saxophone
Roy Agee, trombone and bass trombone

Kirk Dewayne Franklin
(born January 26, 1970) is an American songwriter, choir director, gospel singer, and rapper. He is best known for leading urban contemporary gospel and Christian R&B ensembles such as The Family, God’s Property, and One Nation Crew (1NC) among many others. He has won numerous awards, including 19 Grammy Awards. Variety dubbed Franklin as a “Reigning King of Urban Gospel”, and is one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

One of contemporary gospel music’s brightest and most enduring stars, singer, songwriter, and producer Kirk Franklin emerged in the early ’90s leading the Texas-based choir the Family, whose platinum-selling debut, Kirk Franklin & the Family (1993), proved to not only be a chart-topping gospel success, but crossed over to the R&B and pop charts as well. This broad appeal would prove to be a recurring theme in Franklin’s collaborations with the Family (1996’s Whatcha Lookin’ 4) and another choir, God’s Property (1998’s The Nu Nation Project), as well as in his subsequent solo career, which he started with The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin (2002). Franklin’s fondness for collaborations within secular and Christian music circles, and his innate knack for combining charismatic gospel with R&B and hip-hop, has continued to appeal to a wide audience. He remains a perennial chart success and a frequent Grammy winner, proven repeatedly with Top 20, award-winning albums such as Hero (2005), Hello Fear (2011), Losing My Religion (2015), and Long Live Love (2019). Kingdom Book One (2022), his collaboration with Maverick City Music, brought attention to mass incarceration, while the uplifting single “Try Love,” arrived in 2023.

Abandoned by his mother and having never known his father, Franklin was raised in Fort Worth by his Aunt Gertrude, a deeply religious woman who maintained a strict Baptist household. When he was four years old, his aunt paid for his piano lessons by collecting aluminum cans. A natural musician who could sight-read and play by ear with equal facility, Franklin received his first contract offer at the age of seven, which his aunt promptly turned down. At age 11, he was leading the Mt. Rose Baptist Church adult choir near Dallas. Following a period of teenage rebellion, during which a close friend of his was accidentally shot and killed, Franklin returned to the church and began studying music with Jewell Kelly & the Singing Chaparrals at Oscar Dean Wyatt High School. During this period, he also formed the gospel group the Humble Hearts, whose recording of one of his original songs led to his discovery by Milton Biggham and a chance to lead the Dallas-Fort Worth Mass Choir at the high-profile Gospel Music Workshop of America Convention in 1990.

In 1992, Franklin formed the Family, a 17-member choir comprised of friends and associates from his younger days. After signing with the fledgling GospoCentric label, the group debuted with 1993’s landmark Kirk Franklin & the Family album. The album topped Billboard’s gospel chart for an impressive 42 weeks, crossing over to the R&B and pop charts as well and eventually going platinum. Two years later, Kirk Franklin & the Family Christmas appeared, though it was his 1996 release, Whatcha Lookin’ 4, that sealed Franklin’s stardom. Another major crossover gospel hit, Whatcha Lookin’ 4, reached number 23 on the Billboard 200 and earned him his first Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. The following year, Franklin collaborated with Dallas-based choir God’s Property on the album God’s Property from Kirk Franklin’s Nu Nation, which proved to be an even greater success, topping the gospel and R&B charts, reaching number three on the pop chart, and winning a Grammy for Best Gospel Choir or Chorus Album. Released in 1998, The Nu Nation Project was an ambitious album that combined several different groups including the Family, God’s Property, and a new Franklin-led choir, One Nation Crew. It also saw participation from mainstream secular artists like Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly, and Bono, and subsequently netted Franklin another award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album. It would also prove to be his final album with the Family.

Over the course of the next few years, Franklin worked on the soundtrack of the 2001 movie Kingdom Come (contributing the single “Thank You”), then returned with 2002’s The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin, his first album as a solo artist. Building on the success of its predecessor, the disc soared to number four on the Billboard 200 and spent 29 weeks on the Gospel Albums chart. Franklin’s commercial triumphs continued throughout the decade, first with 2005’s Hero and then with 2007’s all-star affair The Fight of My Life. These two projects gave him consecutive Grammys for Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album and Best Gospel Song (“Imagine Me,” “Help Me Believe”).

In 2010, following the tragic earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Franklin assembled an even bigger crowd of gospel all-stars in Nashville’s Quad Studios to record the benefit single “Are You Listening.” His next studio album, 2011’s Hello Fear, featured “I Smile,” his first hit on the Billboard Hot 100 since 2005. More optimistic in tone than his previous outing, the album took the gospel chart by storm, landing in the top spot and remaining there for several weeks. It also won the Grammy for Best Gospel Album, and its title track took Best Gospel Song.

Franklin spent the next two-and-a-half years touring. He formed his own label, Fo Yo Soul, and in November 2015 released Losing My Religion, which despite its title was every bit as faith-based as his previous work. “Wanna Be Happy?,” a pre-album single, was subsequently awarded Best Gospel Performance/Song. The next year, the parent release won Best Gospel Album. At the same ceremony, Franklin won another Best Gospel Performance/Song award, this time for writing Tamela Mann‘s “God Provides,” and was up for two rap awards due to his role in Kanye West‘s “Ultralight Beam.”

Following a period of extensive touring, Franklin co-produced Tori Kelly‘s 2018 album Hiding Place and launched the Exodus Music & Arts Festival in Dallas. He returned in 2019 with Long Live Love, his seventh Top 20 pop LP. This resulted in his 14th and 15th Grammy trophies: Best Gospel Album, and Best Gospel Performance/Song for “Love Theory.” Collaborations over the next couple of years — “We Win,” recorded with Lil Baby for Space Jam: A New Legacy, and “Sunday Morning” — resulted in additional Grammy nominations for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song. Teaming with Lil Baby, Franklin contributed “We Win” to the soundtrack of Space Jam: A New Legacy in 2021 and earned another Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song. He then partnered with Atlanta’s Maverick City Music Collective to raise awareness of the human rights issue of mass incarceration. Joined by 1,300 inmates at Everglades Correctional Institution near Miami, Franklin, and Maverick City recorded the live album Kingdom Book One in March 2022 and released it three months later during a joint 37-date tour across the U.S. The album earned him three more Grammy Awards. Several non-album tracks arrived in 2023, including “Try Love” and “All Things.” ~ Sandra Brennan & Andy Kellman

Booklet for Losing My Religion