Matt Papa [Your Kingdom Come]
Posted August 25, 2009
By christianmusicreview,
[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.
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