A fresh and accessible spin on already covered ground
Posted January 29, 2009
By Nathan,
Although the demand for Tim Hughes’s music has certainly dropped from his smash hit single “here I am to worship” his debut album (named after his dove award winning song) has still unfortunately remained unnoticed even though many of Hughes other worship songs probably would have been hits as well.
While Hughes’s worship music isn’t new his fresh style doesn’t sound as forced as some of MercyMe’s work and his passionate vocals are both appealing aspects to his otherwise simple music. In the case of “day after day” a happy medium is discovered with a more complex tune than Matt Redman and, unlike Lincoln Brewster, avoids a repetitive song. “May the Words of My Mouth” has a basic guitar driven beat while still sounding fresh and accessible and although "If there is one thing we are called to do" that mainly relies on its inspirational tune and the songwriting which contains the anthem for the album ‘(If there's one thing we are called to do/It's to love You, to adore You’).
The only drawback to solid the light upbeat praise and worship “I'll Always Love You” is the unnecessary excessive length of the track. Hughes’s fine vocals take much of the heat off of the traditional sounding worship “day after day” and his vocals also greatly help “Maker of All Things” which is already a strong song. The title track isn’t a musical giant on the album but the emotion surrounding the song plus the very popular theme ‘Here I am to worship/Here I am to bow down/Here I am to say that you're my God’ is what made it a hit.
Unfortunately not everything on Here I am to Worship is uplifting or ear-pleasing. The soft “Never Lose the Wonder” is too simple to be a memorable ballad that lacks verity and passion. It’s also the beginning of a very underwhelming ending of songs like “Eyes of My Heart”. “My Jesus, My Lifeline” is the weakest point in terms of song writing because with a simple exchange of Jesus’ name for ‘baby’ makes it a cheesy love song. Also with the weak exception of “may the words of my mouth” (‘And I'll look not for riches, nor praises on earth/Only You'll be the first of my heart’) little new insight is offered by Hughes.
There is a steady amount of things to like about Here I am to Worship besides the title track such as his several passion filled songs and Tim Hughes ability to offer a nice spin on already trail-blazed ground. However the fact that most of what Hughes work isn’t original will probably be the deciding factor in a generally underrated worship album.
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