Chris Tomlin "And If Our God Is For Us..." Review
Posted November 25, 2010
By gizmodad,
Earlier this year with the release of the Passion: Awakening live album we were introduced to a few songs to be included on acclaimed worship leader Chris Tomlin's seventh studio album. One of those songs included the smash hit radio single "Our God", which is the inspiration behind Chris Tomlin's brand new album, And If Our God Is For Us... This album is exactly what long time fans will expect from Chris, and this could have both a negative and positive impact on listeners.
The album opens up with a new studio recorded version of "Our God". This version doesn't differ too much from the live version, apart from the addition of heavy strings. This song immediately introduces us to the message and direction of the album, with its worshipful lyrics in the chorus. "Our God is greater/Our God is stronger/God you are higher than any other/Our God is healer/Awesome in power/Our God, our God/. To be honest I liked the live version better because it just had a more passionate and triumphant feel to it, but I still acknowledge that live versions are very hard to convert to studio versions.
Following "Our God" is the latest radio single "I Will Follow". This song is more a personal statement from Chris rather than a "church worthy" worship song. Chris sings about how he will follow God till the end and serve him in everything that he does. "Where You go, I'll go/ Where You stay, I'll stay/When you move, I'll move/I will follow you/How you love,I'll love/How you serve, I'll serve/If this life I lose, I will follow you/ The vocals of Chris are excellent on this song and the chorus is surprisingly catchy. This song is also my favourite off the entire album.
"I Lift My Hands" slows down the fast paced momentum with some beautiful piano parts and melodies. Like most of Chris Tomlin's songs, it slowly builds up into heavy drums and passionate melodies. This song isn't the most complicated song with lyrics like "I lift my hands to believe again/You are my refuge, You are my strength"but it still reflects the immense talent that Chris possesses.
"Majesty Of Heaven" has an interesting pop beat throughout the whole song, which is something I least expected. It also features great backing vocals from Christy Nockels, which can be heard clearly with about thirty seconds remaining in the song.
The most creative song off the album is "No Chains On Me", a fun and upbeat song with an electronic/dance beat. I was pleased to hear some more diverse sounds on this song. However, to some people the dance beat might come across a little weird because it's a whole new world of sound that Chris rarely ventures near.
The next half of the album settles down into the signature Chris Tomlin soft worship sound. "Faithful" is a passionate song about how faithful God is towards his people. The feature that makes this song so great is that Chris Tomlin does a duet with Christy Nockels. I don't know what it is about female vocalists, they just make a song magic. "Faithful and true is the name of the Lord/You are faithful God/".
Featured on Passion: Awakening earlier this year, "Awakening" is a great closer to this album. Like "Our God" the live version had more electricity than this version but is still the same song that calls out to God, "For the world You love/Your will be done/Your will be done in me".
I mean no disrespect for Chris when I say that once again he has produced eleven songs that sound almost exactly the same as his past albums. This album just didn't affect me as much as his others and I think he hasn't produced an excellent album since Arriving. While there was some musical creativity on some songs such as "No Chains On Me", the lyrics were too cliché. However these songs are hugely appropriate for church and I'm sure you'll see them on your sunday morning setlist soon. If you are going to buy this album, I recommend that you only buy a few songs off iTunes, and not the whole album. The few songs you should buy are "Our God", "I Will Follow", and "I Lift My Hands". View All Music And Book Reviews By gizmodad | View gizmodad's Profile
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