Matthew West "The Story Of Your Life" Review
Posted October 30, 2010
By gizmodad,
With successful CCM radio hits such as "More", "You Are Everything" and "The Motions", you've most likely heard of Matthew West, a talented artist with a God-given gift of songwriting. Now he's back in 2010 with his latest offering titled The Story Of Your Life. Based on over 10,000 stories of listeners in the USA and from around the world, Matthew produces eleven beautiful songs about how God works through the lives of people.
The albums opens up with the title track "The Story Of Your Life". This song encourages people who have been broken in life to share their story with others, and that this is only the beginning of your life. "This is the story of your life, You decide how the rest is gonna end." This song is the classic sound from Matthew West and gets the album of to a flying start. The next song and lead single "My Own Little World" is basically a summary of all the stories that Matthew read and also lays out the direction that the rest of the album will take. It highlights the fact that we as human beings can be so selfish sometimes, and that we're usually too proud to admit it. The song encourages people to step out of their comfort zone and show love to those around us. One of the key lines is "....I could be living right now, Outside my own little world." This song is my favourite off the album because I strongly agree with the ideas presented.
"Strong Enough" is the story of a nineteen year old girl who planned to go to college but was stopped when she was involved in a car accident, shattering her leg. The song reminds us that we never have to go through anything by ourselves because God is always there.The song was inspired by Phillipians 4:13. "One Less" is about adoption and states that now that there is a little girl that has a home there's "One less broken heart in the world tonight." Matthew's heart goes out to school kids on "To Me", a song about bullying at school with a bit of a country flavour. This song is even better with a guest appearance from Leigh Nash. "Two Houses" is based on the story of a fifteen year old girl who had trouble dealing with her parents' divorce"...these two houses sure don't feel like home". The deepest song off the album is "Broken Girl". This song is based on over two hundred and fifty stories of women who had suffered sexual abuse as children, that Matthew received within the first two days. This is a truly heartbreaking song as it describes the evil of abuse, but also joyful as it says that you may have had your honour taken away from you but no-one can ever take away the love God has for you. "You're not the worthless they made you feel, There is a Love they can never steal away."
One thing is for sure. The Story Of Your Life is definetley not for the faint hearted and if you're looking for a fun, enjoyable album this won't meet your needs. This album covers themes of pain, suffering, abuse, divorce, bullying, sickness and all the evil in the world, but it also reminds the listener that in the midst of all evil God is and always will be there to carry you through. The lyrical depth of this album is incredible and that's what makes the album so emotional. This album is special because its the "people's album", and I'm sure at least one song will affect your life in some way. The only downside of Matthew's latest effort is the musical creativity. The sound is your typical contemporary radio sound and after a while the sound is too bland and you start to lose interest. But soon those thoughts disappear as you hear the emotional and personal stories of salvation that this album has to offer. For a challenging and thought provoking listen, I recommend giving this album a listen.
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