After listening to the latest album from Aussie Mega church Hillsong I found myself thinking… is this album suffering from split personality syndrome?

Now it’s not a bad thing… all the sounds that you would expect from a Hillsong album are there… great production, great musicianship and great songwriting… the problem is that half the album sounds like the sister band Hillsong United.

I’m not sure if Hillsong is having a midlife crisis… and trying to sound younger… but I was left thinking… I’ve heard it all before.

It’s obvious that Hillsong has got into a habit of writing songs for conference type environments, with big chorus… lots of space in their sound filled with Edge like guitar with delay, reverb and anything else to fill the sound without getting  too full on.

That is until it gets to the track ‘The Difference’ – which has the drive and dirt of a United album, and to be honest feels a bit odd in the middle of an Album that is not quiet Hillsong but hasn’t dared to go far enough to become a United album.

There are some stand out tracks on this album, ‘Rise’, ‘The lost are found’ and the title track ‘God is able’ are my favorites, but I  can’t say that I was left thinking Wow… I have to listen to that straight away.

In saying that I really like the start of  ’Cry of the broken’… it was a great moment that made me want to listen as it introduced some new sounds…

As an album this is a pretty solid album… probably better produced than the last U2… however it’s been done.

As a worship album… there will always be the fans who will buy every album, as individual songs there are a few to bring to the table for church services, but if I was to be honest I have heard better this year (as individual songs)…

So where does it leave me?

This is a conference album… and the songs will certainly mean more to people who have sung these with a group of thousands… that’s just reality… it’s not a bad album by any stretch… but what I would like to see for the next Hillsong and United albums is two differnt bands… with two different styles. At the moment they are too alike… and a waste of my album buying money.

7/10