Sprinter by Torres

The Christian book publishing industry in recent years has perpetuated a virtual cottage industry in what has been termed “leaver literature” books. In short, they’re trying to explain why so many of the children of 21st-century believers seem to disavow, leave, or even hate the church.

For one personal aural answer to this vexing ennui, one need only listen to the spiritual sophomore album of 25-year-old, Belmont University graduate, Mackenzie Scott. She uses the stage name of Torres, and her latest release,Sprinter, is haunted by hints of her adoptive lineage and conservative Southern Baptist upbringing.

The record is shot full with the supernatural and with breathy synth textures, offerings odes to experiencing faith, even as her questioning of it presents a post-baptismal malaise reflective of many millennials. A raw unrest is at work. The last cut on the recording, “The Exchange,” offers a caustic cry and a tortured plea: “Mother, father/I’m underwater/and I don't think you can pull me out of this."

But hers is simply the voice of one life laid bare through the album’s cathartic confessional. Written at age 23, she already can sing, “I am a tired woman.” This is an elegiac lament for those in between, captured in the title’s track refrain: “There’s freedom to/And freedom from/And freedom to run from everyone.” (Partisan)