Great for personal listening, so-so for corporate worship
Posted October 26, 2010
By zachicks,
Worth getting it? If you're buying this album for personal edification, get it. You will be encouraged. If you're a worship leader looking for congregational material, save money and just buy the few songs worth evaluating (see the song-by-song analysis below).
Songs I would most likely end up using in worship: "You Alone Can Rescue" (Redman), "Our God" (Tomlin).
Accessibility: As usual, their sung keys favor tenors and altos (singing in nearly the same vocal range), alienating the bass and soprano vocal range. But good worship leaders should have the musical ability to re-set these songs in accessible keys (and if they don't, they should think about getting some musical training or else choosing a different vocation...because they're not serving the church well when they lead these songs in the recorded keys). Once the songs are set in congregation-friendly keys, the majority of them are accessible and singable for most congregations.
Theological depth: Passion still cannot stand up to the great hymns of the faith, but the longer they're around the more their songs progress to being God-centered rather than human-centered, with a stronger gospel focus. There is still a lack of substantive reflection on one major part of the Christian experience--suffering. Where one of my friends had described the texts and styles coming from Hillsong United as "adolescent," I would comparatively describe this latest collection from Passion a bit more mature (20s, early 30s?) with some deeper songs that push the average upward. Whether they know it or not, the Passion folks still reflect a charismatic/Pentecostal theological perspective in the way they choose to express, experience, and request God's presence.
Musicality: As always, superb. I would characterize the style as modern, yet conservative, with a slight edge. They are not as experimental with rhythm, electric guitar work, synth sounds, and song structure as, say, Hillsong United, but they aren't remaining stuck in the same stylistic forms that they were using on the previous albums (I keep comparing them to Hillsong United, so it's worth pointing out that United actually made it on this album). Musically, Tomlin's "Our God" is enjoyable to me, especially for its bridge and musical interlude (see below). The album is well-produced and polished, as always, and they've included more of the congregational "sound" (background voices) than in previous albums. Probably because of the influence of Hillsong United, there are more congregational "whoa's" (I don't know what else to call them); they appear on several tracks. I personally like this (to me they serve the biblical function of "shout of praise") but I know that it seems to many in the church like pointless, rock-concert frivolity. Still, could congregational "whoa's" be the new version of call-and-response antiphonal singing? Ancient-future, baby!
For the full review, including a song-by-song analysis, go here: http://www.zachicks.com/blog/2010/3/15/review-of-passions-new-worship-album-awakening.html View All Music And Book Reviews By zachicks | View zachicks's Profile
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