Diamonds and Rain

Diamonds and Rain is the third studio release, and second full length studio album, from alternative rock band the Choir, released in 1986. It is the first release under the band's new moniker after dropping "Youth" from their name.

After Shades of Gray was released, Shadow Records folded, so Youth Choir once again found themselves without a record label. Around this time, Myrrh Records was looking to expand their roster of artists specifically in the rock genre, so record executive Tom Willett moved from Nashville to Los Angeles to establish MyrrhLA. The band was signed to the new label in June of 1986, just after Youth Choir's third appearance at Cornerstone, and would be the first alternative rock act signed by Myrrh. However, Willett was concerned about the band's name, so he encouraged them to drop the "Youth" moniker to reflect the band's musical maturity, as well as the practical matter of the band's placement in record sales racks; lead singer and guitarist Derri Daugherty and drummer and lyricist Steve Hindalong agreed, as they had already been considering such a name change, so the band would record as "The Choir" from this point forward. After the Choir returned to Packaderm Studios with Peacock in July and August of 1986 to begin recording, the band landed a spot at that summer's Greenbelt Festival, where they were joined on stage by Peacock to debut some of their new material, which would become "notable in the Christian market at that time for its use of subtlety and for its canvas of a broad range of issues." Hindalong explained this further, using the song "I Painted Mercy" as an example: "The winter sky can be a scary thing. God gives us mortality and we see the scariness of it. God gave us these things to draw us to Him. The element of fear draws us to God. But if we fear death, or if we go and drop a bomb on our fellow man because we fear the winter sky, we're missing the point." Peacock himself would later say, "Diamonds and Rain is much more a collaboration between two gifted artists and a producer. I grew through the process as well, primarily learning that I did not like being such a discernable contributor." The Choir would ultimately re record both songs: an acoustic version of "Black Cloud" on the band's 2010 release de plumed and "Render Love" for the soundtrack of the 2020 film Electric Jesus.

Although bass guitarist Tim Chandler and saxophone and Lyricon player Dan Michaels were official members of the Choir, only Daugherty and Hindalong were featured in the album artwork and promotional materials for Diamonds and Rain. According to Hindalong, the band was "increasingly ashamed" of the photo on the front cover—which featured photo retouched yellow and red spiky hair—and they would deliberately place the albums upside down on their merchandise table when on tour. Daugherty and Hindalong both rejoiced when the album went out of print.

The original album title under consideration was Love and Fear, but according to Hindalong, Willett was not in favor, and "suggested we look through the lyrics to find two symbols representative of these themes—hence, the more poetic Diamonds and Rain." The Choir toured in support of this album throughout 1986 and 1987, opening for Daniel Amos on their Fearful Symmetry tour, and later opening for Randy Stonehill on his tour for The Wild Frontier; Tim Chandler did double duty as bassist for both Daniel Amos and the Choir during this period. While on tour, the Choir released "Render Love" as a follow up single, and it reached #6 on the Christian Rock charts the week of June 8, 1987.

Reaction to Diamonds and Rain at the time of its release was positive. The album was highlighted in Billboard as a "Recommended" release in the Gospel section for the week of December 20, 1986, and the review praised it for its "pleasing pop, filled with energy and memorable melodies." while Barry Alfonso wrote in The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music that, "lyricist Hindalong's expressions of angst and yearning blended well with Daugherty's distorted, effects laden guitar lines." Mark Allan Powell in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music specifically called the song "Render Love" the "standout track [ ] an anthem to universal reconciliation that would have fit easily into U2's late '80s repertoire." Darryl Cater at AllMusic was less enthusiastic, calling the album an "odd amalgam of their previous teenybopper pop sound and the mature progressive guitar rock sound they would later develop; [ ] the mixture of the mainstream with the alternative is not surprising, considering the producer is Charlie Peacock."

All lyrics by Steve Hindalong and all music by Derri Daugherty, unless otherwise noted.