Graves into Gardens is the eighth live album (twelfth album overall) by American contemporary worship band Elevation Worship. It was released on May 1, 2020, via Elevation Worship Records alongside Provident Label Group. The album contains guest appearances by Brandon Lake of Bethel Music, Cody Carnes, Kari Jobe, Tauren Wells and Isaiah Templeton. Steven Furtick, Aaron Robertson, Chris Brown, and Jonathan Mix collaborated on the production of the album.
The album was supported by the release of "The Blessing", "Graves into Gardens" and "Rattle!" as singles. "The Blessing" peaked at No. 15 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, and No. 2 on the Hot Christian Songs chart in the United States, and has been certified gold by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Graves into Gardens" became Elevation Worship's highest charting single, registering their first No. 1 single on the Hot Christian Songs chart, and peaking at No. 2 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. "Rattle!" peaked at No. 4 on the Hot Christian Songs chart, and at No. 25 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Elevation Worship had initially intended to further promote the album by embarking on the Elevation Nights 2020 tour with pastor Steven Furtick, but the tour was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Graves into Gardens was released to critical acclaim, while achieving commercial success with debuting at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Christian Albums Chart in the United States, and No. 2 on the OCC's Official Christian & Gospel Albums Chart in the United Kingdom, concurrently attaining top 100 mainstream chart entries in the United States, Australia, Canada, Scotland and Switzerland. The album was nominated for Billboard Music Award for Top Christian Album at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards. Graves into Gardens received nominations for the GMA Dove Award Worship Album of the Year and Recorded Music Packaging of the Year at the 2021 GMA Dove Awards, ultimately winning the Recorded Music Packaging of the Year award.
Background
Elevation Worship's Chris Brown shared the meaning behind the album title and its theme, saying:
Recording and production
The album's nine original tracks were recorded over a night on January 15, 2020, at Elevation Church's Ballantyne campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, where previous Elevation Worship projects have been recorded. Elevation Worship's Chris Brown noted that while most of the songs were written in 2019, "Rattle" and "The Blessing" were written and recorded in early 2020. The band collaborated with Bethel Music's Brandon Lake in writing a number of songs on the album and featured on the album's title track, other collaborators also included Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes on co-writing and leading "The Blessing" as well as Tauren Wells lending his vocals on "Never Lost".
"The Blessing" was written by Jobe, Carnes, together with Steven Furtick and Brown in a writing session on Thursday, February 27, 2020, at Elevation prior to leading it at Elevation's Sunday service on March 1, 2020. "Rattle" was written during quarantine with voice memos and over Zoom calls, and the track was recorded without a live audience, with the band practicing social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Release and promotion
Singles
"The Blessing" was officially released as the lead single of the album on March 20, 2020. The song debuted at No. 3 and No. 4 on the Hot Christian Songs and the Digital Song Sales charts dated April 24, 2020, respectively. The song peaked at No. 2 on the Hot Christian Songs chart, and No. 15 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
"Graves into Gardens" was sent to Christian radio stations on August 21, 2020, as the second official single from the album. The song went on to become Elevation Worship's first No. 1 single on the Hot Christian Songs and Christian Airplay charts. The song also peaked at No. 2 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
"Rattle!" was released to Christian radio stations in the United States on April 23, 2021, as the third official single from the album and peaked at No. 6 on the Hot Christian Songs chart.
Promotional singles
On March 14, 2020, the album was availed for pre-order, with "Graves into Gardens" released as the first promotional single from the album. On April 3, 2020, "My Testimony" was released as the second promotional single from the album. "Rattle!" was availed on April 24, 2020, as the album's third promotional single.
On the day of its release, Elevation Worship announced that the project became the highest pre-added worship album to date on Apple Music.