Review and MP3 Download: Hillsong Worship - OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild 2015 Album

Hillsong Worship's OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild official album art.

Hillsong Worship - OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild (2015) Deluxe Edition Download (92 MB)

In summary (all you may need to know about this album):

1. OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild is the 24th annual live worship album by Hillsong.

2. It is a live recording done between June and July this year (29 June to 3 July) during the Annual Hillsong Conference in Sydney, Australia; and it features all the Hillsong worship teams (Worship. UNITED & Y&F). 

3. It is the first album that Hillsong Church has recorded live at its Annual Conference in Sydney, Australia, and more than 25,000 people were in attendance. 

3. This album was released worldwide on October 16, 2015.

4.  It includes Hillsong's free Easter single released in March this year: O Praise the Name (Anástasis).

5. The Album Hit No. 1 On Australia's ARIA Album Chart  on the week of release and was touted "One Of The Best Worship Albums Of The Year" and "A Lyrical Masterpiece". (JFH)

Track listing
Below is the Deluxe Edition track listing (16 tracks).
Note that the standard edition only has the first 12 tracks in the same order.

01. O Praise The Name (Anastasis)
02. Love On The Line
03. One Thing
04. Open Heaven (River Wild)
05. Transfiguration
06. What A Saviour
07. Heart Like Heaven
08. Jesus I Need You
09. Here With You
10. In God We Trust
11. Faithfulness
12. Never Forsaken 13. Here Now (Madness) (ft. UNITED) 14. Rule (ft. UNITED) 15. This Is Living (ft. Y&F) 16. Medley: Pursue/All I Need Is You (ft. Y&F)

Music style and acceptability
Hillsong continues with their contemporary approach to worship music; using acoustics, drums, percussions and synths to move one from low pitches to high and overlapping sounds.
Unique to this album is the ability of having a good sync of backup vocalists coming in strongly to bring about a "duet kind-of sound" to every song.

Worship leaders from several Hillsong Church locations, such as Aryel Murphy from Hillsong Los Angeles, Chris Davenport from Hillsong New York, Tarryn Stokes from Hillsong Stockholm and Reuben Morgan from Hillsong London, were included in the recording.

You are able to get both a modern sound and a swing of the old Hillsong music style: near alternative, almost folk/pop but majorly contemporary. But as I mentioned in my review of Hillsong Worship's 2015 album "No Other Name" here, there are still no high tempo songs on this album. This  already seems to be a trend we can confidently predict. 

Besides having all this talent and gifting on the album, I still have a feeling that it would have been a bonus if Lecrae was invited to do his thing on "This Is Living" just as he had done it on the original track on the This Is Living EP. It would have given the album a wider audience and reception.

The album, as noted in the summary above, has been widely accepted by music fans across the globe. Gospel music enthusiasts and reviewers from The Christian Beat, New Release Today, Jesus Freak Hideout and Worship Leader have also agreed that OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild is a remarkable album.

Album art, album title and song titles
The waves that are the main view of the album art march well with the title and songs therein. In their blog (read it here: Art Behind OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild) Jay Argaet says, "I don’t know about you – but I love this title. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit when I first heard the lyric “…open heaven crashing over me”. Creatively, I knew this artwork needed to visualise His spirit crashing towards us. There were a few preliminary failed attempts when first capturing this idea, but it was when we found inspiration in ocean waves that it started to come together. We first attempted to use photos from the coast of Sydney – however, when you think about the Holy Spirit crashing over me, I couldn’t help but  envision enormous waves not just small shore breaks. This is what led us to Shipstern’s Bluff in Tasmania – one of the biggest known breaks on earth, at times reaching 30ft... This wave exemplifies the Holy Spirit in my eyes – an untameable, unbreakable wave crashing towards us. It makes me think of Jesus’ heart towards a lost humanity – an unstoppable wave of grace, love, forgiveness, and acceptance rolling towards those who let Him in. Shooting the wave was no easy walk in the park – with the generous help of our Hillsong Hobart location, we shot the break from both boat and shore."

If you've read my review on tobyMac's ***THIS IS NOT A TEST***, you heard me mention that stylization seems to be "the in thing" today as far as album titles and artist names are concerned, thus in this spirit, Hillsong named this album OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild. It is not a bad thing, more so considering that Heaven (where greatness and salvation come from) is capitalized to imply this attribute...

The song titles and the content within are okay (according to me).

Audibility, singability, fluidity, quality and flow of music

The album generally has a smooth flow from song to song. Considering that almost all songs in the standard edition of the album are low tempo songs (way below 80BPM), transition from track to track is undisturbed. (Try listening to the album with a 5 seconds crossfade and you'll prove me right.)
The album is of good quality both soundwise and vocal-wise. All songs are singable in a congregation of people of all age groups. (But, again, this depends on a church's music style.)

Lyrical content

This album features songs written by a variety of Hillsong worship leaders including Reuben Morgan, Taya Smith, Marty Sampson, Joel Houston, Ben Fielding and others. 

"In Jesus... heaven opens, and in us He stirs a 'River Wild'... a passionate explosive love for God and for the humanity He created," explained Hillsong's Global Creative Director Cassandra Langton. "This is the premise of the album and our prayer is that these songs would ignite and stir within you a passion for God and a love for people."
I am sure that this album, together with the wonderful placement of words and Scripture within the songs, will minister to the global church.

Read the various song stories here;

1. Love on the Line Song Story

2. Transfiguration Song Story

3. Open Heaven (River Wild) Song Story

Read on the meaning of OPEN HEAVEN / River Wild here.

Conclusion

Fans of Hillsong will be as captivated as ever by the definitive sound of this live album. Lush keyboards, booming drums, ornate and driving guitars, passionate lead vocals, and the compelling landscape of several thousand voices in the conference crowd… all of this and more provides for a heartfelt album that worshippers and worship leaders around the world will draw from for years to come!" - LifeWay's WorshipLife,

Empires: Hillsong UNITED Full 2015 Album Download and Review

So after Hillsong released their fourth studio album “Empires” on Tuesday last week (that is May 26, 2015), I moved around the webosphere to see what the main Christian music storehouses were saying about the new album.

Official album art for Hillsong UNITED's "Empires"

Empires: Hillsong UNITED Full 2015 Album Download (66MB)

What I met was a mixture of views (as always because it is impossible for everyone to think and say the same things about an album).

Some commentators were saying that Hillsong are no longer singing music for the congregation – music like what made “us” to really love them – like the music they did way back in the days of Mighty to Save, Best Friend etc etc.

Others were saying that this music album is more for the unchurched; yet others hailed it saying that Hillsong know exactly what their audience needs (musically and worship-wise) and they delivered excellently.

Anyways, here below is my own review of the album and the download;

Track listing

Empires is a 12 track album that lasts 71 minutes and 31 seconds. It has a bonus track, Sunburst (not included in the download I am sharing.)

The official standard edition track listing is as below;

1. Here Now (Madness) – written by Joel Houston and Michael Guy Chislett
2. Say the Word – written by Joel Houston  
3. Heart Like Heaven – written by Matt Crocker and Joel Houston
4. Touch the Sky – written by Joel Houston, Dylan Thomas and Guy Chislett and performed by Taya Smith
5. Street Called Mercy – written by Matt Crocker and Joel Houston      
6. When I Lost My Heart to You (Hallelujah) – written by Joel Houston      
7. Even When It Hurts (Praise Song) – written by Joel Houston      
8. Prince of Peace – written by Joel Houston, Matt Crocker and Dylan Thomas and performed by Joel Houston
9. Empires – written by Joel Houston, Dylan Thomas, Chris Davenport and Ben Tennikoff
10. Rule – written by Matt Crocker and Joel Houston      
11. Captain – written by Benjamin Hastings and Seth Simmons      
12. Closer Than You Know – written by Joel Houston, Matt Crocker and Guy Chislett

13. Sunburst (bonus track) – written by Matt Crocker, Joel Houston, Scott Ligertwood and Guy Chislett.

Music style and acceptability

The music style in Empires is typical of Hillsong UNITED (that is, if you know what I mean.) UNITED’s music style is quite different from that of Hillsong Y&F’s music style, which is quite different from Hillsong WORSHIP’s music style.

Joel Houston is kinda the unofficial worship leader for UNITED, while Reuben Morgan heads WORSHIP and Laura Toggs leads Y&F. (This is my unofficial view of things.)

Back from when they did Zion and followed it up with The White Album, UNITED have rather acquired an indie-electronic sound – which is quite different from the alternative and contemporay worship we used to have from the long ago Hillsong band and the electronic-dance-pop and techno genres mostly done by Y&F. This means, Hillsong as a band, according to me, targets different audiences with their music. That is why it is not just a big band called Hillsong Church Band or any other name that may suit such a band; but that it is intentionally divided into teams with separate target audiences.

With a keen ear and eye, you’d realize that Y&F do music for the youth, UNITED do music for the mature millenial, while WORSHIP do music for a general church audience. You also discover that there is a certain consistency in how these three music groups/teams write their songs, use instruments and arrange chords.

Have UNITED climbed a notch higher? Maybe. But I think it is fair enough to say that they are simply doing what they know best: giving us an album with that “Hillsong touch”. This means that this album may not be appealing to a certain audince that prefers having a whole album that can be done for congregational worship. This album is likely to tread on a rather love-hate (lovehatric so to say) path with many listeners.

Songs like "When I Lost My Heart to You (Hallelujah)," "Prince of Peace," and "Captain" feature a more acoustic sound. They showcase a more intimate sound that churches can sing with a skeleton crew rather than needing layers upon layers of instruments.

“Closer Than You Know” has this beautiful ending with some kind of Selah moment. The title track “Empires” seems to have this extended Selah thing that runs for 2 minutes and 30 seconds before bringing back the bridge again at the end.

“Here Now (Madness)” has a beautiful repetitive theme:

“Coz I know that You are here now

Still my heart, let Your voice be all I hear now

Fix my eyes on the things that I can’t see now

Spirit breathe like the wind come have your way…”

If you would do some “local DJ’ing” and play “Here Now (Madness)” alongside “Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace)”, “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” and Bethel Music’s “You Make Me Brave”, I promise that you’ll come out different…

Then there is that song “Rule” with a techno beat and style. “Say the Word” is more of a folk/pop styled song (is that Taya Smith doing it again?)

Album and song titles

At least Hillsong in general don’t have the tendency of making song titles short and meaningless as many musicians struggle to do. (I always wonder if they do this intentionally, out of advice from the recording company/producer or they just wanna be crazy about short song titles.)  

I am of the school of thought that a music album is like a book: telling a flowing story right from the cover (album art), to the title/name of the album, to the chapters and subchapters (choruses, pre-choruses, bridges, vamps, intros, outros, interludes and ends), to the lyrics (which are the words in the “book”.)

Unless the theme remains the same throughout an album, people will tend to think, “Aaaaah, so nobody really thought hard about that title, right…?”

Hillsong have also mastered this over the years and they have done it quite well on this album.

Audibility, singability, fluidity, quality and flow

This album is of great quality in both sound and creativity. A few songs are rather complicated to flow and sing to the unprofessional worshiper; but most are singable and likeable: with unique bridges and beautiful overlaps. Some chords and riffs are well twisted and repeated; and come out to somehow surprise the listener. (Which is a remarkable thing by the way.)

As Ryan Barbee of JFH puts it, “Empires has a minimalistic sound that relies on rich melodies and meticulous instrumentation”.

Most tracks on this album have a great emphasis on synths just as it is typical of UNITED. I am listening to the album in the background via earphones as I edit a document, and I have no problem capturing the lyrics at all. Even with the music volume at level 6 on my player, I can still hear every tiny sound and word.

The drums are done well. Not noisy, not disruptive on the vocals and not intrusive. Voice blending is good. Lead vocals and backup vocals meet well together in the songs.

The album flows well from song to another (I disabled shuffle so that I listen to the music in its original track flow.)

Lyrical content

There is no doubt that Hillsong as a band (as a whole) have mastered lyrical content in their songs. Songs that are meant to arouse emotion, do it quite well. Songs that are meant to arouse meditation, songs that are meant to drive us right into falling at the feet of Christ do it so well too. I guess they have some of the best songwriters that take Scripture and put it into music quite well.

One notable thing is that Ligertwood (remember him from “With Everything” in “This Is Our God” album?) is one of the song writers (co-wrote ”Sunburst” actually)

Conclusion

So, is this the 2015 album we have been waiting for? I don’t know.

Considering that we have had great music (with relation to this genre) from the likes of Bethel Music, Derek Johnson, Hillsong Y&F, Jeremy Camp, Plumb, Third Day (that great Lead Us Back worship album) etc etc, and because we are just in the middle of the year, I cannot draw a conclusion on this.

But you should download it, listen to it and make your own judgment. (Smily face.)

References

An Open Letter to UNITED (New Release Tuesday) 

Hillsong United: Empires (CCM Magazine) 

Hillsong UNITED, "Empires" Review (Jesus Freak Hideout)

Empires: HillsongUnited album (Wikipedia)

Bonface Morris.

Hillsong Worship: No Other Name Full Review & mp3 Downloads

You love music? I do. You love contemporary Gospel music? O! I'm a great fan. 
 

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 1^st 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.

The official album cover art for Hillsong Worship's #NoOtherName

On 23^rd 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 5^th 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 3^rd 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.