The List of For King & Country Albums in Order of Release Date

Few duos in modern Christian music have pulled off the trick For King & Country manages record after record: stadium-sized choruses that still feel like they’re being whispered straight to you. Brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone formed the band in Nashville in 2012 after immigrating from Sydney, Australia as kids, and they’ve spent the years since turning arena rock, orchestral pop, and even Christmas carols into a sound that’s unmistakably theirs. If you’re trying to sort out For King & Country Albums in Order, you’re really tracing the story of two brothers who kept raising the stakes on their own sound, one album at a time.

That story now includes four Grammy Awards, seven GMA Dove Awards, and streaming numbers north of a billion, built on singles like “God Only Knows,” “Joy,” and “TOGETHER” with Tori Kelly and Kirk Franklin. Fans of acts like NEEDTOBREATHE or Switchfoot will recognize the same instinct to push past the boundaries of a genre without losing the emotional core underneath. Working through For King & Country Albums in Order is really watching a scrappy debut duo turn into one of the biggest acts in the format.

All For King & Country Albums Available on: Apple Music

Also See: Mobb Deep Albums in Order

How Many Albums Does For King & Country Have?

For King & Country has released six studio albums, along with around two live albums, four EPs, and dozens of singles since their 2012 debut. Their catalog also includes a handful of live Christmas recordings and a growing run of chart-topping collaborations.

The List of For King & Country Albums in Order of Release Date

Here’s the complete list of For King & Country albums in order of release date.

1. Crave — February 28, 2012
2. Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong. — September 16, 2014
3. Burn the Ships — October 5, 2018
4. A Drummer Boy Christmas — October 30, 2020
5. What Are We Waiting For? — March 11, 2022
6. The Most Beautiful Colours — September 18, 2026

All For King & Country Albums List in Order

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1. Crave (2012)

Tracks:

1. Light it Up
2. The Proof of Your Love
3. Missing
4. Busted Heart (Hold On to Me)
5. People Change
6. Middle of Your Heart
7. Love’s to Blame
8. Fine Fine Life
9. Sane
10. Pushing on a Pull Door
11. Crave

Crave introduced the world to two Australian-born brothers who’d spent years grinding under other names before landing on For King & Country, and it shows in how hungry the record sounds. Recorded across studios in California and Nashville with producers Ben Glover, Matt Hales, and Shaun Shankel, the album leans on string-laced guitar rock and piano-driven ballads more than the polished pop the duo is known for today. “Busted Heart (Hold On to Me)” became the fastest-rising debut single of 2011 on the Christian charts, while the title track closes things out with the line that would basically become the band’s mission statement: hope is what we crave. It peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart and drew praise for its emotional honesty, even if a few critics felt the back half leaned generic.

2. Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong. (2014)

Tracks:

1. Run Wild
2. Prelude (Fix My Eyes)
3. Fix My Eyes
4. To the Dreamers
5. Shoulders
6. No Turning Back
7. Without You
8. Long Live
9. Steady
10. Already Home
11. This Is Love
12. Matter
13. It’s Not Over Yet
14. O God Forgive Us

This is the record where the brothers’ sound truly clicked into place, and the world noticed: it climbed to No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and eventually won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. Written during a stretch when Luke became a father and faced a serious health scare, the album carries a sense of urgency that “Fix My Eyes” (a No. 1 on Christian Airplay) captures perfectly. Andy Mineo’s guest verse on the title track and Luke’s wife Courtney’s vocal on “Without You” add texture without pulling focus from the brothers’ central message of shedding fear. Critics called it a confident sophomore effort that avoided any hint of a slump, and it’s still the album longtime fans point to as the moment the band’s mission and sound fully lined up.

3. Burn the Ships (2018)

Tracks:

1. Introit
2. Joy
3. God Only Knows
4. Amen
5. Burn the Ships
6. Fight On, Fighter
7. Need You More
8. Control
9. Never Give Up
10. Hold Her
11. Pioneers

Four years and a lot of life later, Burn the Ships arrived as the album where For King & Country stopped sounding like a promising Christian act and started sounding like a mainstream pop-rock band that happened to write about faith. It debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, the duo’s best chart week to that point, and went on to win the Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. The title, drawn from Hernán Cortés’s order to his men and Luke’s wife Courtney’s battle with medication addiction, sets the tone for a record about refusing to look back. “God Only Knows” tackles depression and suicide directly enough that its music video ends with a national crisis line, while “Joy” turned into a 100-voice-choir stadium anthem. A later deluxe edition added a “God Only Knows” remix featuring Dolly Parton, which won its own Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.

4. A Drummer Boy Christmas (2020)

Tracks:

1. In the Bleak Midwinter (Prologue)
2. Joy to the World
3. O Come, O Come Emmanuel
4. Won’t You Come
5. Heavenly Hosts
6. Silent Night
7. A Christmas Monologue
8. Little Drummer Boy
9. The Carol of Joseph (I Believe in You)
10. O Come All Ye Faithful
11. Go Tell It on the Mountain
12. Angels We Have Heard on High
13. In the Bleak Midwinter (Epilogue)

The band’s first full-length Christmas record grew out of an idea Joel and Luke had been kicking around since their earliest touring days, and it landed at exactly the right moment, debuting at No. 2 on the Top Christian Albums chart during a locked-down 2020 holiday season. NEEDTOBREATHE joins for a soaring “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and Gabby Barrett lends her voice to “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” but the real heart of the record sits in two originals: “Heavenly Hosts” and “The Carol of Joseph (I Believe in You),” the latter imagining the nativity story from Joseph’s perspective. Bookended by a spoken “In the Bleak Midwinter” prologue and epilogue, the album plays less like a collection of covers and more like a single, deliberately sequenced Christmas Eve service. It went on to win the GMA Dove Award for Christmas/Special Event Album of the Year.

5. What Are We Waiting For? (2022)

Tracks:

Written and recorded full-time during the pandemic rather than squeezed between tour dates, this record asks its title question about a post-lockdown world and answers it across thirteen songs about community and connection. It’s notable as the first album title in the band’s catalog that doesn’t correspond to a track, a deliberate choice meant to keep the record from being read as a singles collection.

“Relate” and “For God Is with Us” both hit No. 1 on the Hot Christian Songs chart, while “TOGETHER” — featuring Tori Kelly and Kirk Franklin, originally released back in 2020 — became a genuine crossover moment. Deep cut “Unsung Hero,” a tribute to their mother, would later lend its name to the brothers’ 2024 family biopic. The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and gave the duo their second consecutive No. 1 on the Christian Albums chart, later winning the GMA Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year.

6. The Most Beautiful Colours (2026)

Tracks:

1. World on Fire
2. Miracle
3. What If I Told You?
4. Alle
5. Ever & Ever Before
6. Thank God
7. A Good Man
8. My Mosaic
9. Loved
10. The Most Beautiful Colours

Arriving after a short hiatus that followed the 2024 release of their family biopic Unsung Hero, The Most Beautiful Colours is the sound of two brothers leaning further into color and warmth than ever before. Produced by Joel and Luke alongside longtime collaborators Josh Kerr and Tedd Tjornhom, the record folds in global rhythms and a noticeably more optimistic palette, with the band describing it as a reminder to notice the “miraculous happening all around” in everyday life. Guest turns from Taylor Hill on lead single “World on Fire” and Jessica Simpson add fresh textures, while Joel and Luke’s wives, Courtney and Moriah, return for “Ever & Ever Before.” It’s still early days for the record, but early singles have already climbed the Christian Airplay charts, suggesting the duo’s streak of chart-topping releases isn’t slowing down.

All For King & Country Tours in Order by Year

For King & Country has built one of Christian music’s most consistent touring calendars, moving from Winter Jam support slots to headlining arena runs across the US, UK, Australia, and beyond. Their live shows lean into theatrical staging and orchestral swells that mirror the widescreen sound of albums like Burn the Ships, and the band has made a tradition of closing out major tour legs with performances at Nashville’s historic Grand Ole Opry, including a record-setting multi-night holiday residency there in December 2025.

1. Winter Jam Tour (supporting), 2012
2. You Matter — The Tour, 2014
3. Christmas: Live from Phoenix Tour, 2017
4. joy.UNLEASHED | The Tour, 2018
5. Burn the Ships | World Tour, 2018–2020
6. A Drummer Boy Christmas Tour, 2020–2025
7. What Are We Waiting For — The Tour, 2022–2023
8. The Homecoming Tour, 2024

Conclusion

From the string-soaked rock of Crave to the globally minded warmth of The Most Beautiful Colours, working through For King & Country Albums in Order shows a band that’s never been content to repeat itself. Each record adds a new layer, whether it’s a Grammy-winning breakthrough, a full Christmas reinvention, or a pandemic-era meditation on togetherness, while the brothers’ core message has stayed remarkably steady throughout. With The Most Beautiful Colours freshly out and the band still touring hard, this discography clearly isn’t finished growing.

For King & Country FAQs

Are Joel and Luke Smallbone actually brothers? Yes. Joel and Luke Smallbone are brothers who immigrated to Nashville from Sydney, Australia, as children, and they’re also the younger siblings of Christian music artist Rebecca St. James.

What is For King & Country’s best-selling album? Burn the Ships (2018) is their highest-charting and best-certified studio album, going Platinum and producing the two-times-platinum single “God Only Knows.”

Did For King & Country win a Grammy? Yes, the duo has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for both Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong. and Burn the Ships.

Is “Unsung Hero” a song or a movie? Both. “Unsung Hero” started as a deep cut on What Are We Waiting For? (2022) before inspiring the duo’s 2024 family biopic of the same name.

Does For King & Country have a new album out in 2026? Yes. The Most Beautiful Colours, their sixth studio album, was released on September 18, 2026.

What is For King & Country’s most popular song? “God Only Knows,” “TOGETHER” (feat. Tori Kelly and Kirk Franklin), and “Joy” rank among their most-streamed and most-awarded singles.