Chris Tomlin [And If Our God Is For Us]
Posted November 16, 2010
By christianmusicreview,
[MAIN REVIEW]
With six records, nine No. 1 radio singles, three GRAMMY nominations, 16 Dove Awards, a platinum and two gold albums to his credit, Chris Tomlin is among the most well-known and influential artists in contemporary Christian music. Time Magazine referred to him as most likely “the most often sung artist anywhere,” as it is estimated that over 40 million people sing his songs in church each week worldwide. In addition to having sold more than 3.1 million albums and over 3.7 million digital tracks, Tomlin also continues his role as worship leader at Passion City Church in Atlanta, GA.
My favorite Chris Tomlin songs have generally been the new live recordings found on the Passion worship collections, going back to "We Fall Down," "Enough," "How Great Is Our God" and "God Of This City." The Passion: Awakening collection released earlier this year started off with the great new Chris Tomlin worship anthem "Awakening," which I hope will soon be a song I'll be singing with fellow believers. "Awakening" has a great worshipful chorus which ends with "Let Your will be done in me," which is the cry of my heart as well. As that song starts the Passion collection, the new studio recording ends the new Chris Tomlin album And If Our God Is For Us. “Awakening,” co-written with Reuben Morgan, is a great song and is my favorite song on the new album. The album starts with the new studio recording of the #1 hit song “Our God,” the anthemic declaration of faith co-written with Matt Redman that has already spent numerous weeks on top of the Christian radio charts. The bridge of the song is the basis of the album title. The “passion” of these worship songs when sung live among believers seems a bit overwhelmed by the musical production on this album. “I Will Follow” is already a hit song co-written with Jason Ingram and Reuben Morgan and will certainly follow in the pattern of past radio success like “Jesus Messiah,” “Made To Worship,” “Indescribable” and “Your Grace Is Enough.” In addition to the studio recordings of “Our God” and “I Will Follow,” the first half of this album has an electronic musical style similar to newsboys and Stellar Kart. Although this is a popular trend in music right now, those other artists have consistently made those types of albums, but not Chris Tomlin who has always had more of a guitar-based full band sound. The remaining first half of the album includes “Majesty Of Heaven,” co-written with Matt Redman, “I Lift My Hands,” co-written with Matt Maher, which reminds me of “Unchanging” and “No Chains On Me,” co-written with Matt Redman, which reminds me of “Your Grace Is Enough.” They are all good songs, but don’t connect with me quite as much as some of his past hit songs.
The second half of the album is my favorite as the songs switch to more of a piano-based full band rock musical style and they are more reflective. “Lovely,” “The Name of Jesus,” “Faithful” and “All To Us” switch over to more of what I’ve come to expect from Chris Tomlin musically. They are prayerful and worshipful songs that I can imagine singing with fellow believers, especially “Faithful” which was co-written and sung with Christy Nockels. “All To Us” is an epic worship song (over 6 minutes long) that reminds me of “I Will Rise” which was also co-written with Matt Maher. All 11 songs are praise and worship and that’s the basis for the past radio and sales success. There’s nothing different or overly creative about this album other than some additional electronic music. Musically, many of the songs on this album are all a bit similar and very heavily produced rather than going with the Coldplay-type guitar riffs used by Hillsong UNITED. The musical trend from the Passion albums has been more of a Hillsong style, and Hillsong UNITED even appeared on Passion: Awakening. I was a bit surprised and a little disappointed by some of the studio recordings although they will probably resonate with radio audiences.
For me, I would have liked one or two songs that gave me a glimpse of what Chris thinks about besides praising God. Since he’s getting married this year, perhaps I’ll get that on his next album. His approach to this album is a bit less a view into his personal worship thoughts and creativity and a bit more into collaborating with others who seem to be leading the way in today's worship song writing as these songs were all co-written with Reuben Morgan, Matt Redman, Matt Maher, Jason Ingram and others. I don’t mean to heap on any undue criticism however I’m not hearing the heart of Chris Tomlin in any of these songs. My favorite worship songwriters are Joel Houston (“From The Inside Out”), Brooke (Fraser) Ligertwood (“Hosanna”), Reuben Morgan & Ben Fielding (“Mighty To Save”), Robbie Seay (“Song Of Hope”), Tim Hughes (“Beautiful One”), Phil Wickham (“Cannons”), Todd Agnew (“My Jesus”), Jason Ingram & Bebo Norman (“I Will Lift My Eyes”), Paul Baloche (“Your Name”), John Mark McMillan (“How He Loves”), Brandon Heath, Bart Millard of MercyMe and Mark Hall of Casting Crowns. All of those songwriters have personally poured out their hearts in their songs, such as in MercyMe’s “I Can Only Imagine,” “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns and “I’m Not Who I Was” by Brandon Heath.
My main issue these past few albums since the brilliance of 2002’s Not To Us is that Chris seems to have been transformed from a worship leader to a radio singles fixture with the studio albums. It seems to me that “Enough” was the last truly personal worship song penned by Chris Tomlin. Then, great songwriters like Brenton Brown (“Everlasting God”), Laura Story (“Indescribable”), Matt Maher (“Your Grace Is Enough”), Bluetree (“God Of This City”) and even John Newton (“Amazing Grace”) have been the “personal” writers behind the radio success of Chris Tomlin. Tomlin has 5 of the top 10 most played songs in churches. Without a doubt, Chris will always have a place in CCM history. His singing voice is as good as ever, the lyrics are biblical (although a little bit predictable), and this album probably won't win any new fans but should please most fans of Chris Tomlin.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I intend to take nothing away from my respect for Chris or his past accomplishments when I say And If Our God Is For Us just doesn't affect me as his past albums have. Certainly “Our God” and “Awakening” are great songs. Personally I prefer the live versions from the Passion: Awakening album. Maybe that’s just the way I prefer to worship along with Chris. We sing his songs at my church weekly and I connect to most of them personally. “Awakening” might actually be my favorite overall song by Chris along with “Enough,” “Unchanging,” “Holy Is The Lord,“ and “Jesus Messiah.” If you like those songs, then you should enjoy this album, especially “Our God,” “I Will Follow,” “Majesty of Heaven,” “Faithful,” “All To Us” and “Awakening.” Expect to be singing most of these songs at your church soon.
Rating: 8.1 out of 10 (81%, B-)
Review written by: Kevin Davis | Review can also be found here.
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