Sides

Sides’ was Justin’s first studio album, released in 2007. Stripped-down but wrapped with warm melodies, the album’s unadorned, all-acoustic instrumentation offers an elegantly sparse backdrop for Justin’s soulful vocals.

The title track “Sides,” is a poetic summation of the “glass is half full” worldview that’s a keystone of Justin’s life and art, something embodied consistently in his music.  Other stand-outs include the album opener, “There’s Always Next Time” and “April On The Ground,” the joyful, moving first single – for which there’s an equally affecting video. “For It’s You,” which Justin calls, “a simple song about my faith,” stirs heart and mind with poetry and devotion. Sides’ only cover, Jim Croce’s “I’ve Got A Name,” is “my dad’s all time favorite,” says Hines. “Wish You Well” was undoubtedly the biggest track off the album, with lots of radio play and a beautiful music video to accompany it.

Justin cites as one of his own favorites the song “Never After,” which he says took him an uncharacteristically long time to write. “I met someone that really had an impact on me,” he said. He also singles out the final track, “Another Way To Cry,” a minimalist gem featuring Justin’s vocals backed by only a piano for a song that explores, “how we’re all kind of hurting, and we all show it in very different ways. I want to encourage people to find the beauty in the darkest situations.”