Christians for Goliath Gives Adeem the Artist’s Old Songs a New Context
Fifteen years is a substantial stretch of life to gather into one album, particularly when the writer’s relationship with its central subject has repeatedly changed. On Christians for Goliath, Adeem the Artist brings together songs and prayers from periods of religious service, estrangement and continued searching.
The album’s design acknowledges that those questions remain active. It opens with the title track reduced to an acoustic arrangement, then returns to the song in full at the end. Between those versions sit nine tracks that expand the inquiry into family, gender, empathy and the possibility of belief outside orthodoxy.
John Darnielle produced the record after suggesting that he and Adeem make a contemporary Christian album in Nashville. The musical vocabulary also includes gospel, country, blues and folk, giving the collection several traditions through which to approach its spiritual concerns.
The announced tracklist includes “Glory to the Cosmic Force,” “Baskets of Gold (St. Lou Reed),” “Saint Wilgefortis,” “Unseen Mother” and “Ashes in Flight.” Black Guy Fawkes guests on “Statue of Jesus,” while Amelia Riggs appears on “Hymn for Squirrels.” Those credits place additional collaborators within a project rooted in Adeem’s own accumulated writing.
Near the album’s close comes “Hard to Get”, the lead single featuring The Mountain Goats. Released with an official lyric video, it honors Rich Mullins and the example his songwriting and generosity provided during Adeem’s early musical life.
Its placement immediately before “Goliath” gives the announced sequence an interesting final pairing: a tribute to a formative Christian songwriter followed by the return to the album’s opening concern. The title song originated in Adeem’s response to the backlash against Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s 2025 appeal for mercy toward immigrants and LGBTQ+ children.
The 11-song collection arrives December 11 via Four Quarters Records / Thirty Tigers, with pre-orders and pre-saves now open. Its framework accommodates both the political urgency of that title and the older, less easily settled questions that Adeem brought into the sessions.
