BarlowGirl [Our Journey...So Far]
Posted September 14, 2010
By christianmusicreview,
[MAIN REVIEW]
For BarlowGirl, Our Journey... So Far is all about their fans. It's a collection of the 15 songs that effectively tell the story of the 13-time Dove Award nominated band BarlowGirl throughout their first 10 years. The album not only tells the story of the band musically including their #1 radio hits “Never Alone,” “I Need You To Love Me” and “Let Go'” but it also tells their story visually. Included in the packaging is a 16-page booklet that dips into the Barlow family archives and reveals the history of the band through never-before-seen images. Unlike the typical 'best of' album, Our Journey... So Far candidly tells the story of these three rockin’ sisters (Alyssa, Lauren and Rebecca) musically and visually in chronological order. It's truly a product that will engage all fans no matter when they first connected with BarlowGirl.
For me, that connection started with #1 hit song "Never Alone," which is one of my top songs of the past decade. I’ve recently seen BarlowGirl live, and Alyssa explained how alone the girls felt while waiting for God to move on their behalf before BarlowGirl was signed to a record label. “Never Alone” is based on the loneliness and silence of waiting for God’s response and it includes one of the best piano and guitar hooks in all of Christian music. Another stand-out song on this collection is "Mirror," from their self-titled debut. At a recent concert, Becca Barlow, who's usually the quietest of the sisters, spoke up and went on to share how "Mirror" represented much of her own struggles with how she used to view herself when she was a teenager. She explained how once she surrendered herself to God's view of her and began seeking to change her mind by dwelling on His Word, that she was eventually freed from self-destructive thoughts about herself. Those songs are accompanied by equally gorgeous songs “She Walked Away” and “Surrender” from the incredible debut album. Hit songs “Let Go,” “I Need You To Love Me” and “Grey” represent their sophomore album Another Journal Entry.
How Can We Be Silent is perfectly represented by “Here’s My Life,” “One More Round” and their call-to-action anthem, "Million Voices." At a recent concert, Lauren quickly got very passionate, to the point of raising her voice, as she talked about making a change in the world as a church body, following God's calling on our lives, and even devoting our lives to changing history. She closed her inspiring talk, and her inspiration for the song "Million Voices" based on 1 Peter 2:9, encouraging the crowd as a “chosen generation” to sing along with their hearts as well as their voices. “Hallelujah (Light Has Come)” is a beautiful Christmas song and leads to "Stay With Me," one of the stand-out songs from Love & War, and the theme of song is love with the encouragement that "all I need is Your love pulling me." "Our Worlds Collide" is also about love and the girls share how God has filled their hearts with love. The personal nature of the songs really draws me in as I have 3 daughters and want nothing more than for them to know the Love of God. Hit song "Beautiful Ending" hits me even harder with the challenging "it scares me to think that I would choose my life over You, My selfish heart divides me from You, It tears us apart." The song is beautiful and encourages me to live for God. “Come Alive" includes the cry to ""wake up, get out there's no time to waste now" which really gets to the heart of the matter including the charge to "be the change we've all been waiting for." A fun surprise at the end is a remix of “I Need You To Love Me.” The song is truly one of the best and most personal songs ever by this great band and musically and lyrically this is literally a perfect album.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Even if you’ve collected the first 4 studio albums and the Christmas album by BarlowGirl, the digitally mastered recordings of these 15 songs and the musical and visual anthology of Our Journey... So Far makes it a “can’t miss” album of 2010. I can only give this album 5 stars and a perfect score for message and music as these are all truly incredible songs with inspiring messages and gorgeous vocals. My only other advice is that you need to also get the rest of the songs from Love & War if you haven’t already.
Rating: 10.0 out of 10 (100%, A+)
Review written by: Kevin Davis | Review can also be found here.
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