Warning : this is a wordy post. I'm making up for not posting here very much lately with something I'm passionate about - worship music.
Hillsong have been making live worship albums for 18 years, and while there's been lots of changes to the team in that time, a couple - like Darlene & Reuben - have been around for the vast majority of that time.
They know what they're doing. But more importantly, God knows and honours what they're doing.
It goes without saying that this album sounds amazing. My company provides some of the ancillary services for Hillsong's conferences and recordings, so I know a bit of what goes into these productions, and they are productions. Very. Big. Productions. This year, they decided to record the album across several locations and several weekends, including each of their Sydney church campuses + the Colour Conference, all in March.
You'll likely be pleased as I was to find that only two of the tracks are found on the recent Hillsong United album
Tear Down The Walls ("No Reason To Hide" and "You Hold Me Now"), so there's 11 brand new songs here. Well, brand new if you haven't been hanging around Hillsong over the past year or so.
At Hillsong Conference this past week, we sang fewer songs from this new album than would usually be the case, but does that mean it's a weak album ? Not at all. In fact, even at this very early stage, it's one of my favourites. In my opinion, their weakest patch began around a decade ago, but with each album since 2004 growing in quality and focus, they are at a new peak in album production.
Note I said albums,
not songs ... there has always been strong songs in the mix, and the last 3 Hillsong Live albums (
Saviour King,
This Is Our God, and now
Faith + Hope + Love) contain consistently captivating praise and worship music, with thematic links, musical consistency**, and everything you want from Hillsong - energetic praise, anthemic worship, and those tender moments you can use for personal worship too. Importantly in my opinion, these albums all utilise Hillsong's now familiar military breakbeat across a diverse range of worship songs. It's a musical device I understand - there is something very special about a group of people, be it 20 or 20,000, coming as an army of worshippers before God.
But what about the songs on this album?
The album will be out in the USA in 3 weeks I think, and since that's where the vast majority of you, my readers, reside, you'll find out soon enough ... but for now, here's my opinion of the CD. Note that the DVD is a different track order to allow logical flow based on the locations where the songs were recorded:
1. The First And The Last - a less anthemic opener than we've become used to from Hillsong, and nothing mind blowing, but a good congregational praise song.
2. For Your Name - Jad Gillies is leading a lot more often for the main church these days, and this is one of his best. I like the different feel that this song has (especially the sequenced pulsating backing). I'll definitely be using this in our church at some point.
3. Glow - the 3rd-track-mid-paced-big-song, 6/8 time works well for this, not to mention David Ware's soulful voice. David opened the conference, and while the quality of his voice isn't shown at full effect in this song, he was the right choice to lead it.
4. It's Your Love - possibly Mia Fieldes' strongest song since
All For Love, with a beautiful picture painted in the verse lyric, a catchy chorus, and Darlene taking us into the powerful bridge where the title resides. Not sure if I'll use it, but I will certainly worship to it myself. A lot. Especially the bridge/tag.
5. I Will Exalt You - Brooke shared the story for this song in the songwriting sessions, and it's a beautiful, gentle, intimate song. I'm an emotional worshipper, and just typing this is reminding me of how this song led me to a place I wasn't expecting at conference which involved tears.
6. Yahweh - a very Reuben song (and if you're familiar with Reuben's songs you'll know what to expect I think), we'll definitely be using this in our church. This is an anthemic 'set-closer'. And throughout the conference, this was one of the most loved songs by the delegates, all 22,000 of us, give or take.
7. No Reason To Hide - moving into the second half (Hillsong Live albums are almost always sequenced in 2 sets in case you'd not noticed that before), this is one of the songs on the United album, and it's one we'll be doing at church soon. Too. Much. Fun. It's a minute shorter than the United version, but the basic arrangement is identical.
8. God One And Only - with an opening riff that reminds me of
Panic On by
Madder Rose, this is a fun praise song, as everything JD leads is. We'll likely use this too. Matt Crocker (who I think is now around 21 - he must be, he's been writing with the team for 5 or 6 years now) has come up with most of the main riffs Hillsong have used in recent years. The stories he told in the songwriting sessions made me feel much better about my writing process ;)
9. The Wonder Of Your Love - a co-write between
Leeland and Marty Sampson, this is the mid-paced-big-song of the second 'set'. If there are any low-lights on the album, I guess this and track 12 get that gong. But that would be doing both songs a huge,
huge disservice. In reality, Hillsong have so many top writers, nothing bad gets on the albums these days. A sign of this - Ben Fielding, writer/co-writer of some of their best songs in recent years, such as This Is Our God, He Is Lord, Mighty To Save - doesn't have a single writing credit on this album, but he talked at the songwriting sessions and is still very active.
10. His Glory Appears - the shortest track, and one of my favourites on the album. Easily one of Darlene's best songs in years, having Brooke lead this was the perfect choice. It's gorgeous, and I've been singing it to myself since I heard it. Very simple, it's just a single verse and chorus. Oh, and being a Darlene song...you can probably guess it's about the cross. And no bad thing either.
11. We The Redeemed - Jill McCloghry has a sweet voice, and I believe I'm right in saying this is her first time leading a song she wrote herself on a Hillsong album. I can see us using this song in our church; it fits well with who we are. It's got the military beat, it's got a simple, well-phrased melody, and good scope for ebb and flow in the arrangement.
12. We Will See Him - co-written by Reuben with Robert Fergusson, one of Hillsong's best preachers, the second pre-chorus - 'we'll see the fullness of His word, all of His promises revealed' really resonated with me leading into the last song on the album. Apart from that, it's a pleasant enough song. Very Reuben.
13. You Hold Me Now - a lot has been written about this song since its inclusion on the United album, so I won't rehash it. Easily the single most powerful song at the conference this year, Brian & Bobbie Houston have affectionately renamed this song "No More Bad Stuff". Amen to that.
It's going to be a long time 'til I tire of listening to this album...at least partly because I don't listen to much music on repeat, but also because with our church album recording project ramping up, and my own personal stuff getting a look in as often as possible, I'm going to have to be very selective with listening.
So, what would you recommend I listen to in coming months?
** Musical consistency (by genre) is something our own album is actually
not going to have when it comes out later this year - it will reflect the diversity of our team, purely because we can't do 3 or 4 individual albums to fit each genre. So I've got a big job to do to sequence it sensibly. Pray for me.
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