Now, talking of
contemporary Gospel music, and a lot more about Gospel soft rock and Gospel rock (I am not even sure there is such a genre of music,
anyway, who cares? Hah), I wanna review a great Australian band by the name of
Hillsong (formerly Hillsong, then Hillsong United, and now Hillsong Worship.)
I have been an ardent
follower of Hillsong Worship ever since I got saved. In fact, I boast of having
their entire discography – music from, let me see - from the year 1990. One of
the first English songs I came to know after getting saved (weird as it was
because I was a Hip Hop head while running secular) was a Hillsong song:
"Shout to the Lord" followed by "Power of Your Love" and
thereafter, so many more followed.
Boasting over 60 chart-topping
albums with spiritual and theologically sound songs of worship and praise,
thanksgiving and communion, Hillsong Worship is more than just a band. It is
said that about 30million people sing a Hillsong composition every Sunday all
over the world. Their creative team is one of those teams that seek to
"make music worthy an ear and a heart" and moves to make Jesus known - with the
artistic ability to even top secular music charts. This has been proven by
songs like Oceans: Where Feet May Fail topping secular music charts, winning the Annual K-LOVE Awards and becoming their all-time best selling single.
But Hillsong has progressed over
time. From the days of Shout to the Lord to
the days of God He Reigns; from the
days of Mighty To Save to the days of God Is
Able their music style has radically changed.
The face of Hillsong in the earlier
days was a music style dominated by an alternative genre of contemporary
worship. This was the period between 1990 (under the album Show Your Glory) and 2000 (when they produced the album Shout to the Lord - The Platinum Collection
Vol. 1). All this time, the Hillsong team was under the guidance and
leadership of one Darlene Zschech. She wrote and
directed most of the songs – becoming famous when Shout To the Lord went platinum in Australia and topped Christian music charts all over the world. It became the most
popular song at that time in an era where contemporary worship was still a new
thing to the church.
The period between the year 2000
and 2005 marked an inception of rebranded worship and more acoustics chipped
in, making the music more radical and modern. From the year 2006 to present
time, Hillsong Worship has moved bounds. When you examine the music style used
in Mighty To Save (produced in 2006)
to the music style in No Other Name (released
this year on 1st July), one cannot cease to see the improvement in
the fervency, lyricism and spontaneity, theological aptness, creativity and
inspiration used while producing and releasing these albums.
Of course so much has changed since
Darlene Zschech left in 2008 (she left to join and support her husband
in their ministry, Hope Unlimited Church). The team is now under the guidance and leadership of the soft-spoken Reuben
Morgan as the music pastor. Some of us were worried back then. We were tempted to ask (and we did ask), "What
will become of Hillsong after Zschech? Will we still experience the movement of
God's Spirit in their songs? Will they turn too contemporary as a team?" This is because, as we thought, Hillsong was
synonymous with Darlene Zschech. Leading such a great team for more than two
decades somehow makes you some sort of founder and brand... But we were wrong.
Hillsong emerged to be more than just Darlene Zschech. Hillsong is a team – a
band full of talent and build on the Word of God – it has proved that it is/was
not founded on a one-man policy but the policy of many who trust in the Lord…
Oh well…
From This Is Our God (2008) to Glorious
Ruins (2013) to No Other Name (2014), God has
proven that Reuben Morgan is worth his salt.
These projects have brought us countless church worship anthems. (I can't even start
mentioning them here.) New members have joined the team: the likes of Taya
Smith (who I now call "Hillsong's golden lady"). She sang their most popular
song today - Oceans:Where Feet May Fail
and has sang my favorite song in No Other Name:
Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace). She somehow has managed to take away
the hangover I had while missing collaborations introduced by the band sometime
back when Darlene Zschech was joined by Brooke Fraser in Faith+Hope+Love (2009) as a guest
singer and when Brooke Fraser was included in Savior King (2007) and in This Is Our God
(2008).
*******************************
Now, rolling through the years
down to No Other Name (2014), you
have a taste of soul-freeing music done to the taste of Scripture. No Other Name is a declaration worship
album whose theme resembles one project they did in 2006: Songs For Communion. Obviously, the music style is different, but
the message resounds the same thing – delivering to its listeners a deep
theological message with Christ at the centre, something to remind us of
Calvary, who we are in Christ now that we are saved and the power and hope in His Name to believers.
The development of No Other Name begun in February this year when
Hillsong Worship through their page announced that they are working and
recording a new album to be released for July 2014 – having the same theme as
their Annual Hillsong Conference held early this month (July, 2014).
Hillsong's music producer
and director, Michael Chislett
together with various team members announced that, "We just want people to tell of and know the name of
Jesus, that it may resound in the hearts of all that there is #NoOtherName but
Jesus Christ our God" and that "the new songs are bringing new life..." before the album was released. Their creative team leader, Cass Langton shares on The 10 Things She Has Learnt About leading A Creative Team.
.jpg) |
| The official album cover art for Hillsong Worship's #NoOtherName |
On 23rd
April in Times Square, New York City, one Jay
Argaet was seen shooting the album art for the cover of the new album whose name was not mentioned until May 5th when
they posted the cover artwork of the album (the same picture Jay Argaet shot of
Times Square in New
York City) which showed screens with the text, "No Other Name, Jesus" imprinted on it.)
Before
doing this, they released and shared the album's first single, a song titled "Calvary" as an Easter single on
3rd April (which I actually shared on my Facebook and Twitter.)
No
Other Name has a specific theme. The theme resounds throughout the
album, and unlike every other Hillsong album released since the year 2000 when
they began introducing high tempo songs and acoustics in their albums, it has no high tempo
song. (Well this is a little of a sad story to guys out there who have enjoyed
songs like Always Will, God Who Saves and
Lift You Higher from the previous
album Glorious Ruins.) But be it as it
may, the album is great.
The album is 65 minutes 35
seconds long and contains 11 songs sang and arranged in a manner that tells a
story from the first to the last song.
For instance, the first song is This I Believe (The Creed) which
introduces you to the album with an old message most of us have well forgotten –
a message contained in the Apostle's Creed. (Yeah, not many of us even know
that there exists something called the Apostle’s Creed. Too bad.) The song was
written by Matt Crocker and Ben Fielding. Click here to read about and watch a video on the story behind the song.
The next song is HeavenAnd Earth sang by the same guy who sang the theme song Cornerstone in the 2012 album, Cornerstone. (By the way his voice
resembles one guy I used to know in More Than
Life (2004) and in Blessed (a
2002 album – singing a song called Magnificent.) (Yeah I had to mention that because his
voice is cool like that… and by the way, get those two old but very cool songs…)
The third song, Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace) which is my favorite on the album - and which I
have been playing endlessly by the way - is sang by their golden lady – Taya
Smith. The song was written by Joel Houston (Pastor Brian Houston's son) and
Joans Myrin. Now, Taya Smith is exemplary. Her voice is addictive. He falsettos
are unique. The pulses within her vocals are beautiful. (I use her voice often
to train mine, by the way.) Well, download the song here and prove it for yourself. Get
blown away like I am. (By the way – yes, that's another by the way I guess - I have only known three other ladies who have a
voice as addictive as hers: Brooke Fraser (of whom I have been waiting for her fresh album
to be released this year but I am still in some sort of a hangover), another one called
Lainey Wright and one Kim Walker-Smith… they all sing folk/pop Gospel except for Kim who mostly does soft rock and contemporary Gospel. Well, that becomes a story for
another day…
Back to the album review...
The theme song No Other Name (click the link to download the song) is song number four, written by the same authors of the third
song. And as it is characteristic with Hillsong, it comes with their usual
anthem shouts – flaring harmonies that pull you into glory and vamps that
repeat the theme, "There is no other name,
there is no other name, Jesus Christ our God…"
In the next song (song number
five) Depths, you hear a continuation of the theme in the previous song. Okay,
Hillsong has a habit of pulling words from the Psalms and all over Scripture
into their music which, if you are a music writer, you know that it is never
that easy. But with them, it comes out so naturally: I love You with all my heart, I love You with all my soul, I love You
with all my strength, with all that is within me… are the lyrics you sing
along to in this song, with the name Jesus
being a sort of alternating bridge in the song.
To make a summary of the rest of
the album (because I am avoiding boring you), Calvary
(that Easter song) comes at number six, ThankYou Jesus makes a
continuation of the voicing in Calvary at
number seven, All Things New comes at number eight, My Story at number nine, Our Father is a prayer at number ten and Mountain seals the album at number eleven.
(Please click on each link to download the song. I may upload the lyrics to
some of the songs soon, so keep checking.)
End Note: To finish off, some other Hillsong projects worth looking into are; Hillsong Young & Free who I think replaced
Hillsong Youth Alive! (Shame on me that I have not shared with you guys some of their great music right here...) And I also think you may be interested in reading on Hillsong United/Worship's upcoming documentary film to be
released in 2015. Read the details about it here. (Maybe it is about time I started doing reviews on some of the movies I watch, right? Oh well, we'll see about that...)
God
bless.
Bonface
Morris.
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