A Broad Experience
Posted June 24, 2014
By MarkRyan_NRT, Staff Reviewer
I may have been asleep for the last five years or so, because I had never heard of Covenant Worship prior to listening to their latest offering, Kingdom. For the uneducated like myself, Covenant Worship is the music ministry from the multi-campus, inter-denominational Covenant Church, with their main campus located in Carollton, Texas. If there is one word to describe the sound of Covenant Worship, it is much like a word used to describe their home state, and the God they serve: big.
At the start of the first track on the album, "New Every Morning," I was reminded of Lakewood Live – upbeat, rock and roll, adult contemporary worship. Honestly, it sounded like it may be about four or five years old.
Speaking of Lakewood, the tracks "Risen" and "Can't Stop Singing" feature Israel Houghton. The songs fit the iconic worship leader perfectly, and his presence is welcome. That said, they are fairly standard praise songs that do a lot to stir people up but left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed.
The album slows down with "Let The Name Of Jesus Reign." This is a beautiful song about the power of the name of Jesus. I found myself enveloped in this song after being somewhat put off by the earlier songs. This is a singable worship song. Production-wise they tried a little too hard to add electronic elements going into the bridge, but other than that it is a wonderful song. The album turns a corner with this song, as I'm sure the atmosphere in the worship service did.
"More Holy Spirit" is a nine minute heart cry for God's spirit to be poured out on the people: "Lord I decrease / As You increase / it's all about You / it's not about me." They park on this line for a bit in what turns out to be an extremely intimate moment and leads into the solo female voice singing "Holy Spirit break us / come and overtake us / You're the one we're living for / Holy Spirit lead us / to the heart of Jesus / there is nothing we want more." It is a beautiful, heartfelt prayer. This is what changes worship leaders to lead worshippers.
As that tender moment ends, we are smacked upside the head with a tom drum solo and a somewhat confused mixture of Gaithers meet Rend Collective with "Your Kingdom Come." After that track, things slow down again with "Closer." This is followed by "Here Waiting," which adds a sense of prophetic worship similar to Misty Edwards. "Not Ashamed" is a worship anthem, and the album closes with "First Loved Me."
Closing Thoughts:
It seems as though Covenant Worship hasn't fully decided what they are going to be in terms of a worship band. There are songs that will appeal to fans of Lakewood, Misty Edwards, Vineyard, Centric and even the Gaithers. The album was rather confusing to listen to from beginning to end, but had very wonderful moments on it with "Let The Name Of Jesus Reign," "More Holy Spirit" and "First Loved Me." The other highlight of the album is that it was recorded live, just as all worship albums should be.
Song to Download Now:
"More Holy Spirit" View All Music And Book Reviews By MarkRyan_NRT | View MarkRyan_NRT's Profile
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