Hillsong United - 'United We Stand'
Review by Rich Houghton
The latest offering from the Hillsong United production machine is as we’ve come to expect: a well-written and well-produced album, even exceeding the high standards they’ve previously set themselves.
Past albums have included such excellent compilations as ‘Look to You’ and ‘More than Life’, but ‘United We Stand’ is even more polished, even more exhilarating, and packed with an even better selection of what Hillsong do best: sensitive ballads, anthemic choruses and full-on guitar-driven rock worship songs.
United We Stand displays all the Hillsong United trademarks: catchy and ‘singable’ melodies, memorable electric guitar riffs, and passionate worship right from the heart. Creative song writing and interesting melody/chord structures don’t always go hand-in-hand with inspiring worship songs, but Hillsong United have set the standard here, and you can see why. For me, this album works equally well as a personal accompaniment to worship, simply for pure musical enjoyment, or as a resource for the local church.
Personal favourites of mine include ‘From the Inside Out’, ‘None but Jesus’ and ‘The Stand’, mainly for the pure, intimate and raw worship they convey and inspire. Beautiful in simplicity, these are songs and lyrics that clearly catch a moment in local church life, whilst echoing God’s worldwide purpose.
If there are any negatives, it would only be that with such a well-evolved album of songs in terms of song writing, musicianship, vocals and production, some of the songs here are just too complex to be reproduced by your average music team, making it in some ways unattainable. However, we must be grateful and honour Hillsong for their perseverance and commitment in not settling for what they’ve already achieved, but continually pressing forward, pushing boundaries and breaking new ground.
“And the cry of my heart is to bring you praise, from the inside out, Lord my soul cries out…”
The album can be purchased from Amazon. |
Matt Redman - 'Facedown'
Review by Rich Houghton
It was with much anticipation that I first listened to the latest live worship recording from one of our country’s premier Christian songwriters.
And how refreshing it was to hear a recording of songs that are not only well-written and performed, but more importantly, catch the heartbeat of God for the Church at this time.
The songwriting is distinctly more mature than previous Redman recordings, the female vocals are particularly graceful and inspiring, and the arrangements are creative and sensitive. But what really stands out is the heart of the recording. This album is clearly an intimate reflection of Matt Redman’s own personal journey of complete adoration, revelation and wonder, expressed through predominantly corporate songs that are simply bursting with heartfelt, passionate response!
Highlights on the album for me would be the anthemic ‘Nothing but the Blood’, along with the intimate encounter of the title track ‘Facedown’. Some of these tracks accompany well our encountering God in gathered corporate worship. Others are much more intimate, deeper personal responses that work better on an individual level. Either way this album is a real gem.
Well done Matt for continuing to serve the Church with an inspiring album of songs of praise and thanksgiving that we too can use to express our response to the revelation of God.
The album can be purchased from www.mattredman.com or www.wesleyowen.com. |
