In an industry where recording “artists” commonly pay top-dollar producers to create a sound for them, Matt Papa shines all the brighter as one of the rare, raw musical talents. Whether shredding on guitar, crafting a melody on piano, or pouring out his soul vocally, Matt brings something truly fresh and creative to this ever-commercializing art. What’s more is that Matt actually has something to say. Whether between songs in a concert or through writing his lyrics, Matt delivers a clear and persuasive message to move his listeners toward the Word and graces of God.
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Matt Papa [Your Kingdom Come]| Posted August 25, 2009 [MAIN REVIEW]
As an artist who isn’t interested in simply making music for music’s sake, Matt Papa writes songs that center around God’s word and doesn’t consider his job done until the lyrics have taken permanent residence in a listener’s head. “If you can write a song that’s full of God’s word, and that song gets in someone’s head, that’s a powerful thing,” Papa says. “I often don’t remember a sermon I heard yesterday, let along a year ago. But with songs, there’s a hook, and people remember it. So that’s why I want to write about Scripture. I don’t want to waste time.”
Staying right on point, the call to live intentionally is a theme that resonates deeply through the songs of Papa’s new Centricity Music release, “Your Kingdom Come”. First song “Hallelujah, Our God Reigns” is one of my favorite songs of the year and it grabs your attention immediately with its piano intro and rock beat. The song is epic and has the best guitar riff I’ve heard in a long time. Matt said he wrote the guitar part and wanted to find a way to sing the words of Revelation 19, “All Glory and honor be unto the Lamb, Forever and ever and ever, Amen”. Check out the song and you’ll be hooked. Title song “Your Kingdom Come” keeps the praise and worship going in the style of worship leaders Matt Redman, David Crowder and Delirious?.
The idea of being flexible and available to do whatever God calls us to do is what inspired the album’s central thesis and first single, “Open Hands”. “You have to live before God with open hands. We may have our plans and ideas, but at any moment, Christians, unlike the world, have to be ready to drop anything and totally do something else if God is calling us to,” Papa says. Some other highlights for me on the album are “Trinity” and “Here Am I, Send Me.” “With ‘Here Am I, Send Me,’ it was Isaiah who uttered those famous words after seeing The Lord, high and exalted,” Papa says. “The Church has forgotten to pray those words for too long. It is wonderful and necessary to demonstrate acts of kindness, service and love, but those by themselves aren’t enough. The world must hear the Gospel. They must hear the name of Jesus. And we, the Church, must surrender all we have and go tell them!”
CLOSING THOUGHTS
If you like Matt Redman, David Crowder and Delirious?, then you have to check out Matt Papa. “Hallelujah, Our God Reigns”, “Your Kingdom Come”, “Open Hands” and “Trinity” are my favorite songs on this very solid album.
Rating: 9.4 out of 10 (94%, A)
Review written by: Kevin Davis | Review can also be found here.
This review has been reprinted on NRT with permission from ChristianMusicReview.org. Click here to visit ChristianMusicReview.org today!
Matt Papa’s first album with the Centricity Label, and second full-length project, hits the ground running, picking up where his previous effort, You Are Good left off. Your Kingdom Come is an authentic, stimulating and direct album of modern praise and worship demonstrating a seasoning that goes beyond Papa’s actual 25 years.
Your Kingdom Come is a collection of intelligently written, thoughtful, hook-laden music, in the vein of predecessors David Crowder, Rich Mullins and Matt Redman. Much like fellow prophetic minstrel Derek Webb, Papa pulls no punches with regards to his lyrics. Every track is fully capable of engaging the listeners’ whole heart and mind, as well as their hands and feet. His melding of ancient cannon & simple, sound theology with modern pop/rock is fresh, appealing and ear-catching.
Papa continues to demonstrate a mastery of musical continuity by nimbly connecting diverse genres of influence into an organic whole. While the majority of the albums’ whopping 18 tracks lean toward high-energy rock reinforcing God-focused anthems, interspersed throughout are several deeply revealing acoustic tracks and quirky vignettes that give us a glimpse of the multi-faceted (Godly) man behind the music.
Fans of the above modern worship luminaries, as well as Fee, Charlie Hall, Jason Morant and Matthew West will also find common ground in Papa’s work.
Pretty much every song| Posted June 03, 2013
In my opinion, this guy has a few good songs with nice hooks and such, but most of them are really just excessively-wordy and not too musically interesting. There are some weird key changes that don't add anything to the song for your casual music listener/churchgoer-- it would be great to see some creativity in an area that listeners would recognize and respond to-- like a catchy hook instead of the bounties of random noodling. Not to mention the fact that he leads worship at a huge church in NC that plays many of his songs and he has been known to, at times, choose to play one of his songs instead of one from another band/the church. A little ethically-questionable, in my book.
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