Beloved

This record is called Beloved — which is what the name meant all along. The shepherd boy. The least one in the lineup, the son nobody called first, led up out of Babylon and down beside quiet waters. Eleven songs about being chosen when you were the last one anyone would have picked, and about the psalm that came out of it.

Each song was recorded six different ways. Same words every time; different takes. We didn't narrow them to a shortlist first, because deciding which take carries a song like this takes a person, listening — not a machine sorting.

That's the ask. Sit with each take, all the way through if you can, and tell us which one holds. Not the boldest one. The one that sounds like it's telling the truth.

The takes aren't labeled, and they come up in a different order for everyone. That's deliberate — we don't want our thumb on the scale, and we don't want yours moved by a letter or a filename.

All eleven are open now. When they close, the record is finished: the takes chosen here are the ones that ship.

There's no order to it. Start anywhere.