Monday, July 4, 2011 at 11:24PM In the early days of the hymn resurgence among young (largely evangelical) Christians, only a handful of groups were making records. Red Mountain Music was one of those entities.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 9:15PM 
Vol. 1: Make a SoundThis blog, in case you didn’t know, is especially interested in cataloguing trends among young Christians who are seeking creatively to wed the historic Christian faith with modern expression in worship and music. The Opiate Mass is a fantastic example of this, and yet they are doing more than providing a packaged expression of ancient-future worship. They are pursuing innovation in church music.
The Opiate Mass isn’t quite a band. It isn’t quite a concert-experience. It isn’t quite a liturgy or worship service. It’s something in between all those things. The Opiate Mass is a collection of musicians and artists out of Seattle, led by director Zadok Wartes. In an interview, Wartes relates its origin:
A group of dear friends and I were all experiencing a rather bothersome dissonance between our rock/club/band experience on Friday nights, and our Sunday morning music direction/performance. We dreamed up our ideal of both worlds — composing and performing epic music in large holy spaces all in the name of the sacred and beautiful. It was an awkwardly indulgent and desperate desire to experience God.
Vol. 2: AlbatrossThe Opiate Mass performs (leads worship experiences) in a host of venues across denominational lines. They draw inspiration from the broad Christian tradition—Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. Their albums are elongated and contemplative. They create spacey, ambient music, rich in texture and layering, with a mixture of old and new instruments, from horns and pipe organ to synths and electric guitars. If you had to boil down their expression to one band, they most resemble the indie-eclecticism of Radiohead. Yet their choice concert hall is an old, classic sanctuary (high ceilings, stained glass, ornate woodwork), not a rock arena. The textual content for their music is historic and eclectic, from hymnody (e.g. “What Wondrous Love is This,” on Albatross, and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” on From the Belly of a Woman), to service music (e.g. “Sanctus,” on Make a Sound), to Orthodox liturgy (e.g. “Paschal Troparion,” on Albatross) to Scripture (e.g. “Isaiah 35,” on From the Belly), to original material.
Vol. 3: From the Belly of a WomanTheir three recordings (to date) are mixdowns of live performances, which, in the words of Wartes, “have their warts and abrasions.” Still, they’re beautiful. And, amidst the worship biz’s heaps of hyper-polished “live” recordings with more post-event overdubbing than preserved original tracks, The Opiate Mass’s material is refreshingly human and boldly experimental.
Perhaps what I appreciate most about The Opiate Mass is their insistence on not bifurcating the sacred and the secular when it comes to artistic musical expression in ecclesiastical contexts. In the language of my own Reformed tradition, they observe God’s “common grace” in places like clubs and rock concert halls. They don’t disavow the genuine experiences they have and feelings they feel when they hear a great band in a “secular” venue. But, taking the approach that all truth is God’s truth, that all beauty is God’s beauty, they seek to sanctify musical expressions that isn’t readily associated with Christian worship. I wholeheartedly applaud this endeavor.
I likewise appreciate the unashamed merging of musical and liturgical worlds which are often kept apart in Christian worship. They are unafraid of blending classical instruments with modern ones. They do not flinch at the juxtaposition of ancient texts with futuristic sounds. They newly arrange tried-and-true musical works (check out their redressing of Handel’s “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” on From the Belly of a Woman).
I don’t know how reflective their recordings are of the actual experiences they lead in churches, but at least what is recorded is meant more to be listened to and reflected on than sung with. In other words, they’re not creating original congregational music. Still, they’re contributing something powerful to the ever-evolving corpus of church music.
From the Belly of a Woman is their latest album, released this past Tuesday. It is the fruit of their work during Advent/Christmas 2010. They recognize that May is an odd time to release a Christmas album, but they nevertheless press on, and they’ve given the Church a beautiful gift. You can download all their music directly from their website, under “Catalog.”
Monday, April 25, 2011 at 9:30PM 
The folks at Sojourn Music continue to lead modern church music down a different path. Each album seems to be more aggressively their own, pushing outward the narrow boundaries of contemporary/modern worship by experimenting with new and old sounds and styles. The Water and the Blood was produced with a different set of values than the industry standard—in analog, as a whole, and with a vinyl option. Producer Mike Cosper explains,
While still reflective of a variety of moods and styles that occur at Sojourn gatherings, it’s a recording with a sound, a sense of space, something that’s meant to be listened to as an album, as a whole. It’s meant to be a listening experience, and vinyl, with its added depth, warmth, and presence, has a way of conveying that experience like nothing else.1
The album was recorded largely in Bloomington, IN, with Paul Mahern, who has worked with Over the Rhine, The Fray, John Mellencamp, and others. Tracks were laid down on tape, not bits and bytes, trading digitized perfection for human warmth. Herein lies another subtle challenge to the value-system of contemporary/modern worship. It makes a theological statement about authenticity, humanness, imperfection, and grace.
The Water and the Blood is installment number two of their ongoing quest to re-give the hymns of Isaac Watts to the Church. The first installment, Over the Grave, was a masterpiece, as well. “The Water and the Blood” appears to be a phrase codified over time in English hymnody. It is perhaps most famous in Augustus Toplady’s “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me,” whose opening verse reads, “Let the water and the blood / from Thy riven side which flowed / be of sin the double-cure / cleanse me from its guilt and power.” But the lesser-known hymn of Watts, “Lord, We Confess Our Numerous Faults,” which, adapted, appears as the title track, contains the phrase which predates Toplady. Ultimately, the wording belongs to Scripture (1 John 5:8), but English hymn-writers have given this pairing a strong significance. And, now, so has Sojourn Music. We might consider “the water and the blood” poetic shorthand for the entire gospel story, and, given the album’s content, it is a fitting title.
SUMMARY
Musically, The Water and the Blood is superb. Its production is fresh and original, and its diversity of style is so off the grid of a typical “worship album” that it seems other-worldly. Textually, one simply can’t find fault with lyrics that pull from Isaac Watts, one of the most formidable theologian-pastor-songwriters of all time. Sojourn could spend the rest of their musical years retuning Watts’ texts, and the Church would be incredibly blessed for it. In my opinion, not every song is fit for congregational singing, but the two I’d be especially inclined to bring into my local church’s repertoire are “The Water and the Blood” and “Let Your Blood Plead for Me.”
MUSICALITY
If you have narrow tastes and appreciations, this album is not for you. If you’re looking for modern worship’s standard sound, this project will be a disappointment. If, however, you have a taste for blues, folk rock, country, bluegrass, soul, and Americana, you will love The Water and the Blood. The album bears the hand-print of Mike Cosper’s subtle, soulful, and artistic guitar style—especially electric and lap and pedal steel, though he plays dobro and mandolin as well (!). The guitar solos throughout aren’t necessarily always flashy, but they are thoughtful, melodic, and musical. I am thinking particularly of the three songs I will mention next.
One of the first things to note is the album’s use of blues to convey confession and lament. I have longed to see the intersection of this genre with this biblical expression. Blues is uniquely suited to convey the hope-tinged anguish of the lamentations of David and Watts. From the recurring electric line (and complementary bass line) in “From Deep Distress,” to the descending tremolo guitar line and soulful vocals in “Deep in Our Hearts,” to the heavy joy of “Death Has Lost its Sting,” Sojourn shows how powerful a song can be when music and text are so thoughtfully wedded.
The vocals are likewise remarkable. I sense some different hues of control and expressiveness in Rebecca Dennison’s voice, especially on “The Water and the Blood,” which is a favorite track of mine. The fact that six additional vocalists (Jamie Barnes, Rebecca Elliot, Kristen Gilles, Brooks Ritter, Megan Shaffer, and Chad Watson) sing on the album is a testimony to the vision of community music-making and anti-rock-star vision for artistry that Sojourn has grown to champion. (Though not every church has the human resources to do this, I would add. Sojourn is very blessed in this regard.)
One of the marks of creativity in songwriting for the local church is in the careful balance of innovation and singability. “Compel My Heart to Sing” is a great example of this. The melody is melismatic and easy to sing, and the music beneath is far from bland. The chorus’s progression (C, C/E, Fm, Bb, Eb, Ab, G) is beautiful and different.
“Let the Seventh Angel Sound” is a fun arrangement that sounds like it came from the brains of Paul Simon and James Taylor. The organ is calibrated to a mellow, almost whistle-like setting. The clean, loose guitar playing, coupled with Barnes’ smooth vocal style, is engaging. I wonder, though, how fitting the text’s intensity is with the song’s easygoing nature. I’d love for Barnes to comment and bring insight to that.
Brooks Ritter has written a beautiful new setting of “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” The music brings out certain hues from the text absent in its more triumphant (and equally beautiful) setting (“St. Anne,” by William Croft, 1708). Ritter’s tune is a soulful country ballad that highlights the comfort Watts probably intended to evoke in his beloved text.
Some might think that the musical setting of “Let Your Blood Plead For Me” is too playful for the gravity of its content, with its on-beat, honky-tonk-style piano and interlude progression (I, III7, vi, I, IV, II7, V, V7). I find its light-heartedness an interesting take on the hymn (see comments on the text below). The Scriptures speak about the human response to salvation being our “skipping like calves” (Malachi 4:2), and this music surprisingly and tastefully colors the text in that direction.
THEOLOGICAL CONTENT
As noted above, the first thing that one should notice about this album, textually, is the amount of verse devoted to the under-used biblical expression of lament. Verse 1 of “Death Has Lost Its Sting” cries:
My God, how many are my fears
How fast my foes increase
Conspiring my eternal death
They break my fleeting peace
The first verse of “From Deep Distress,” in keeping with the anguish of the opening lines of Psalm 130, records:
From deep distress and troubled thoughts
To You, our God, we raise our cries
If You truly mark our faults
No flesh can stand before Your eyes
I have now heard many a worship theologian proclaim that the church’s song really does shape the church’s spiritual health. Unfortunately, because evangelicals have little vocabulary for lament, when suffering comes our way, we have no theological and spiritual categories to handle it, and we question our faith, God’s goodness, or even His existence. Lament teaches us to suffer rightly. Sojourn has given a gift to the church by bringing this to the fore.
The second thing one should notice is the album’s gospel-saturation. Time and again, the source of delight in the texts is found in the meritorious work of the life and death of Jesus Christ. “The World Will Know” praises:
Our faith adores Thy bleeding love,
And trust in one that died
We hope for heav’nly crowns above
Redeemer crucifiedThe world will know the righteousness
Of our incarnate God
And nations yet unborn profess
Salvation in His blood
Salvation in His blood
The chorus of “Deep in Our Hearts” testifies:
Oh gracious God, You’ve heard my Plea [notice the capitalization]
A once cursed pris’ner, now released
Those dreadful suff’rings of Thy Son
Atoned for sins that we had done
The gospel is the motivation of all our worship, as “Compel My Heart to Sing” intones:
Jesus, my God and King
Thy wisdom is a boundless deep
What wondrous love has purchased me and
Compels my heart to sing
Sojourn and I share a passionate desire to see modern worship embrace a richer vocabulary of the gospel in our song. If there continued to be progression in even that one area in contemporary Christian music, the Church would be tremendously blessed.
There are two songs, though, that stand out in their weaving of text and music. “The Water and the Blood” is the first:
Lord we confess our many faults
And how great our guilt has been
Foolish and vain were all of our thoughts
No good could come from withinBut by the mercy of our God
All our hopes begin
And by the water and the blood
Our souls are washed from sinIt’s not by the works of righteousness
Which our own hands have done
But we are saved by our Father’s grace
Abounding through His Son
It’s a simple song of confession, but the words are crafted so carefully and beautifully. The verses center around minor tonality, and the choruses switch to major, with a lift in the melody to a new tessitura. It’s all just very well put together.
“Let Your Blood Plead for Me” is the other outstanding song. It is a song of testimony:
Lord, how secure my conscience was
And felt no inward dread
I was alive without the Law
And thought My sins were deadMy hopes of heaven were firm and bright
But then Your standard came
With a convincing power and light
To show how vile I am
This testimony is starkly (and without much transition) contrasted with the chorus:
Let Your blood plead for me
Let Your blood wash me clean
I believe, Lord I believe
Your blood has covered me
It is a song that aptly exegetes the oft-used phrase (it appears in various forms), “The bad news is I am more sinful and broken than I dare imagine, but the good news is, in Christ, I am more loved and accepted than I dare hope.” The Law rightly condemns me, but, through Christ, the Father justly pardons me. This is the essence of the song. And it’s powerful!
Both for its text and its music, I heartily recommend The Water and the Blood as a fresh and timely work. I look forward to what’s next from Sojourn Music. They’ve quickly become leaders in a new kind of evangelical modern worship, and I welcome it!
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 8:47PM 
Passion, Here For You (sixsteps/Sparrow)
Released: March 8, 2011
I remember when I heard my first Passion record—Passion 98—in high school. It was fresh and different. Little did I know at the time that I was listening to a mile-marker in the short history of contemporary worship. Passion and Delirious are the pivot-point on which “contemporary worship” swung to “modern worship.” Thirteen years later, much has changed, and much has stayed the same. Many of the same faces and voices that were emerging in 1998 (Tomlin, Crowder, Hall, Redman) are now household names in contemporary Christian music. Those twenty-somethings who were more raw emotion and energy have matured into thirty-somethings who have added a bit more depth to their passion. Here For You clearly shows that Passion still dominates the modern worship scene.
SUMMARY
Passion always produces great albums. To my ear and heart, this is not a hallmark album, however. Musically, it is a typical modern worship album (this is not a criticism). Textually, there are a few small surprises, but nothing jumps out that has not been previously recorded. Awakening (2010) had a few outstanding songs (e.g. “You Alone Can Rescue”). This album doesn’t seem to carry the same kind of stardom. The songs I would most likely incorporate into worship are: “All to Us” (see my review of Tomlin’s album for comments on this song) and “Spirit Fall.”
Repeats from other albums and projects include: Crowder Band’s “Shadows,” from their Church Music, Stanfill’s “Forever Reign” from Hillsong’s A Beautiful Exchange, and “All to Us,” from Tomlin’s And if Our God is For Us.
MUSICALITY
The production, as always, is great. The album is filled, with few exceptions, with the typical instrumentation: flowy keys, electric guitars, light acoustics, big drums, and crowd noise. “All My Fountains” is a nice sonic departure from the standard tones and sounds of modern worship. It is more earthy and vigorously acoustic rhythm reminiscent of late 90s Dave Matthews. Christy Nockels (“Carry Your Name”) really does have a golden voice…the finest in Passion’s arsenal.
Perhaps the most novel aspect of Here For You is the introduction of rap into Passion’s recordings. Lecrae appears on “Shadows,” with David Crowder, and on the bonus track of “Our God,” with Chris Tomlin. With others, I’m appreciative of the incorporation of other genres, and especially from brothers and sisters who have an equal claim to the history of American church music—the African American tradition. Some may disagree, but I believe rap is very much rooted in a combination of blues and the sing-song/shouting style of traditional black gospel preaching. However, as many have noted, rap is a hard medium for congregational music. It is effective as a preaching medium, and in a responsorial format (e.g. a verse plus a congregational refrain), but it is certainly something for congregations to listen to, not participate in. Still, it’s a welcome addition to Passion’s albums specifically and worship generally. Perhaps it is another small sign that racial bridges can be and are being broken down in and around worship. Praise God for that!
THEOLOGICAL CONTENT
With this album, we see yet more cross-pollination between Hillsong worship and Passion worship. “Set Free” is co-written by Redman, Tomlin, Ingram, and Ben Fielding. Stanfill leads Hillsong’s “Forever Reign.” There is also a little nod toward the hymn tradition on this record. The chorus of “Lord, I Need You” very briefly touches on the text and melodic line of the 1872 hymn by Annie Hawks, “I Need Thee Every Hour.” I’m also excited to see the maturation of the songwriters with texts which “sound” like the expression of the biblical Psalms. Kristian Stanfill’s “Always” is a weaving of several psalms (like 121 and 130) which give voice to lament in worship.
Some songs on the album, such as “Lord, I Need You,” “Carry Your Name,” and “Constant,” are deeply gospel-centered and Christ-saturated. The text of “Lord, I Need You” is doubly praiseworthy because it highlights Christ’s righteousness, not our own triumph, the latter being a nagging theme sometimes found in modern worship:
Where sin runs deep Your grace is more
Where grace is found is where You are
And where You are, Lord, I am free
Holiness is Christ in me
Likewise, I appreciate the opening line of Crowder’s “Sometimes”:
Sometimes every one of us feels
Like we’ll never be healed
Sometimes
Modern worship needs to rest in these moments of lamentation more often, like the Psalms do. The song carries quite a progression that one often doesn’t see in one hymn:
It begins in individual lamentation:
Sometimes every one of us aches
Like we’ll never be saved
Sometimes
It progresses to hope:
When we’ve given up
Let Your healing come
When there’s nothing left
Let Your healing come
Til we’re rising up
Let Your healing come
It moves to adoration:
It’s Your love that we adore
It’s like a sea without a shore
We’re lost in You
We’re lost in You
It moves to consecration and mission:
Where You go, we will follow
Oh, God send me
“All My Fountains” is an interesting expansion on that phrase taken from an under-appreciated psalm (Psalm 87), an eschatological song about the children of Zion and the joy of being in the protection and presence of God. Knowing the psalm gives great context for the joy of “All My Fountains”:
He has founded his city on the holy mountain.
The LORD loves the gates of Zion
more than all the other dwellings of Jacob.Glorious things are said of you, city of God...
Indeed, of Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one were born in her,
and the Most High himself will establish her.”The LORD will write in the register of the peoples:
“This one was born in Zion.”As they make music they will sing,
“All my fountains are in you.” (Psalm 87 [NIV])
The first three songs are calls to worship, songs of exaltation. “Symphony” lifts the eyes similar to the opening lines of “How Great is Our God,” with its Psalm 19-like first verse:
Shining wonders, fields of splendor
How they sing Your symphony
The deepest oceans, rising mountains
How they sing Your symphony
There is a strong emphasis throughout the album (which is typical of modern worship) of finding God’s special manifestation in the moment of musical worship. “Waiting Here for You” sings,
And we’re desperate for Your presence
All we need is You
“All My Fountains” cries,
Come on, rain down on us,
Rain down on us, Lord
It has always been a part of the modern worship ethos to seek God’s special manifestation in the moment of singing. Many worship songs ask for that very thing, saying something like, “as we sing, come meet us here.” I wonder, with such a heavy emphasis on the presence of God in music, whether modern worship has steered us away from seeing how the presence of God is also (and perhaps better) manifested in other elements of worship like the Lord’s Table. A gentle reminder to those of us who love and appreciate the vitality of modern worship is that the Scriptures testify and the history of the Church’s worship corroborates the reality that God chooses to manifest Himself most acutely in the Lord’s Supper, not in singing. But, unfortunately, modern worship movements like Passion have been at least a small step removed from corporate worship of the local church, acting more like parachurch worship movements than core expressions of Christ’s church (interesting sidenote: Passion City Church has launched as a Passion-offshoot in Atlanta). While I’m all for encouraging generations to gather, be inspired, and rise up for ministry (Passion is a movement targeting the specific demographic of college and young adults), I wonder whether Passion’s influence on the Church has at least in a small way led evangelicalism more toward missing what uniquely happens in worship when we celebrate the sacrament together.
It is encouraging to see the theological jab in “Spirit Fall.” Often times, simple songs of the Spirit are nebulous and do not highlight the roles that the Spirit plays. Here, we have a very specific call for the Holy Spirit to act:
Oh, come
Magnify the Son
Savior of the world
The hope for everyone
The Spirit’s job isn’t just to give us goosebumps and overlay an emotional blanket on our hearts during worship. The Spirit has come to bear witness to the Son, to herald the gospel, and to illumine Christ to us. To my mind, this is what gives this simple song some uniqueness in the modern worship expression. Personally, I am not usually drawn to more experiential songs, but this one attracts me because of its theological angle.
“Set Free” is an exciting song intended to get bodies moving:
And we’ll dance, dance
Dance in Your freedom
Oh, Your glorious freedom
Forevermore, forevermore
Perhaps because it’s more of a “dance” number than a “sing” number, the text-writing is a bit more loose. I often encourage worship leaders to hold up as a criterion for song-selection the idea of logical cohesion (see my article “How I Choose Songs for Corporate Worship”). Where is the point at which words and phrases move from being “impressionistic” to random? I wonder whether “Set Free” teeters on this tipping point:
Joy, joy, unspeakable joy
Hope like never before
You came for us
You are our freedomLove, love, unshakeable love
We shall over come, we will never give up
We lift a shout, we lift a shout
Everyone singingCome on, come on now, we’ve got a new song
Come on, come on now, a song of liberty
Let the world hear heaven’s melody
This is the shout of the hearts You’ve set free
There is a conceptual glue which holds these statements together, certainly, but the text is awfully loose. I’m not totally against it, but I want to continually raise the question that many do not: Should we not pause to ponder the fact that, while standing in the rich history of hundreds of years of Christian worship, we are the first to express words in this way, so loosely hung together?
I’m also interested in discussing the phrase, “dance in your freedom.” For as popular a phrase as this is in modern worship, there aren’t many Scriptural parallels to it. In the Bible, certainly there is dancing. And a major theme of the gospel certainly is freedom. And yet if you do a Bible Gateway search of the words and phrases, “dance freedom,” “dancing freedom,” and “dance free,” at least in the NIV, no matches are found. Where did this phrase and idea get so popular for modern worship? Does it have its roots in David’s naked, “undignified” worship? Is it an attempt to encourage that attitude of heart? It is not at all bad to strive for bodily freedom in worship; God deserves our all. Dancing is an expression of worship, of course. But where did we come up with this phrase, and what is its meaning and purpose? I simply want to question its prevalence in our modern hymnody.
Because of Passion's incredible influence over evangelical worship (in many ways, they are trend-setters) they must be open to scrutiny and questions like those above. Still, Here For You contains nothing off-course theologically, and will no doubt leave a positive mark on the landscape of modern worship.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 10:00AM 
Contrary to what one might think I believe, the hymns movement is not THE answer for modern worship. The reform that is needed and the reform that is happening in today’s evangelical congregational music needs much more than a revival of hymnody and historical connectivity. That said, the hymns movement is still an important piece in this reform…which is why I want to continue to herald its growth and expansion.
Jaron and Katherine Kamin are a welcome addition to the fold. Recently relocated from Socal to Nashville, this singer/songwriter couple have found new solace in old hymnody. Just yesterday, they released Here Among Us, a beautiful indie-rock hymns album, which was produced by the mighty Andrew Osenga.
Jaron and Katherine share the vocal load throughout the album. Jaron’s is a straight and simple pop voice (as any good modern worship leader should have)—not too flamboyant, but certainly nuanced and stylized. Katherine’s is a round alto tone, uniquely suited to the indie style of the project. Some of the songs are new tunes to the old hymn texts (e.g. “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven”), but many are modern re-arrangements of the original tune (e.g. “Nothing but the Blood” and “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”). They’ve also included a few of their own great originals (e.g. “Light”).
Much like my comments regarding Ascend the Hill, I personally enjoy the musical style of Jaron & Katherine. Their style is a loose, engaging indie rock sound. “Light” begins with a Built to Spill-ish / OK Go-ish beat and guitar chord shifting. In general, there is a lot of “space” in their mic-placement or effects on the electric guitars…beautifully ethereal, as in “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation.” You can hear the Nashville influence, as well, on tracks like “Give Praise to the Lord,” with its tasteful, arpeggiated banjo. “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” contains a fresh rhythmic interplay between the original melody’s 4/4 rhythm and their added flowing 6/8 beat. The drumming throughout the album is creative and unconventional. I love the surprising second half of “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,” in that regard.
The whole album is a rich sonic feast, but my favorite two songs are “Praise My Soul the King of Heaven” and “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation.” In my opinion, many of these songs work wonderfully for congregational singing (see their answer to the final interview question below), and I hope that many churches (particularly the ones sold out on the Passion and Hillsong repertoire) will employ them. I thank God that folks like Andrew Osenga spend time producing the work of new and emerging artists, especially those of the hymns movement variety. You can hear Osenga’s tasteful electric guitar work throughout Here Among Us…in a sense it’s his small signature on the album. Go out and get the album, and tell all your friends about it! I can’t wait until their next project.
I had the privilege of being able to fire off a few questions to the Kamins. When bloggers like me do interviews, it’s a risky endeavor, because artists are not always purposeful, thoughtful, and articulate. This is not the case with the Kamins, which is why I wanted to give them a major voice on this post.
Tell us about your background as worship leaders and with worship music.
Well, we've been leading worship together since before we started dating. So, for almost nine years. It started with youth groups, then volunteering with smaller congregations, and eventually to Jaron being a full time director after some time in seminary. Katherine's been involved on and off, but writing and playing music has always been one of our favorite ways to spend time together. We've primarily led worship in congregations that were also our worshiping community. With this record, though, we've had opportunities to visit other congregations, and that's been a really beautiful experience for us, being received into another body's worship service and connecting with folks there.
When we started leading it was almost entirely with contemporary songs. It really wasn't until around 2007 when Jaron's boss at the time, Jim Rauch of Westminster Pres in Escondido, CA, started asking him to include one hymn per week that our focus began to change. It didn't take long for us to realize that rearranging these hymns for a contemporary style of worship really felt like the best of both worlds to us. Eventually the pastor had to require that we include at least one contemporary song each week.
What are your thoughts, constructive and critical, about the state of contemporary evangelical worship today?
It’s hard to generalize about the state of evangelical worship. So many churches are doing so many different things. What we can say is that we think the church is at its best when people in local contexts are finding what works and resonates in their particular situation. When they find or create the music and lyrics that give voice to their community, affirm scripture, and draw nearer to God because of it, then we see that as ideal. From our perspective problems arise when a community goes through an identity crisis and starts to reach for a voice in worship that is not their own. A church should not trust only a record label executive to determine what their worship should look like, though that executive may have some good ideas.
What captivates you about hymns, and why have you chosen to focus your album on them?
We love hymns for at least three reasons. The first is that the hymns provide a connection to the thousands of years of Church life that have come before us. When we sing these songs, we sing with the saints of the past. We have a connection to their struggles and joys, which, we believe, are struggles and joys that we still relate to today. We have a connection to the way our fathers worshiped their God, who is also our God.
The second reason is that we find these songs, in general, to be very rich theologically. So much modern music today, evangelical or otherwise, is about expressing an emotional state. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the music of the last few centuries (again with exceptions) has been more about engaging with very particular aspects of who God is and who we are in Him. Including hymns in our worship provides some needed balance.
Third, a lot of the music is just beautifully written music. It makes sense- it that has survived for centuries. You tend to hang on to the good stuff. That makes for a pretty big pool of great music.
What, in your minds, is the value of setting old hymns to new music?
For us a lot of the value in it is that the new music enables us to own the lyrics a little more. That’s the hope anyway, but to be honest, we also just love to rearrange songs, whether they were written in the last twenty years or the last two hundred. We personally still love the hymns when you’ve got a group of people singing around a piano or pipe organ, but we hope that these arrangements will provide a fresh experience for people.
What are your hopes and goals for this album?
It really was a privilege just to be able to make this album. To work with this music with such amazing musicians and to see the vision become a reality through our work with Andy Osenga was kind of a realization of hope for us already. However, we hope that the people who might benefit from hearing this record will be able to hear it. We hope it provides something fresh, that it gives voice to people. And we hope it enables these works to minister to folks who may not engage with them otherwise. We hope that people who hear it will participate in it. One of the things we were really intentional about in recording, even in the keys we chose, is making a record with which people would be able to participate, whether that's by using these arrangements at church or singing along in the car. And one of the beautiful things about working primarily with lyrics we didn't write is that when we lead others in a live setting, it doesn't feel as though we're imposing our own words onto them. We're all partaking in the ministry by the saints that came before us.
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 8:06AM 
Jamie Barnes, The Mercy Seat
Brooks Ritter, The War (split EP)
Released: February 22, 2011
There is something very special going on in Louisville, and my writing a review about this “happening” is kind of like the woman who was straining just to get a finger on the hem of Jesus’ robe—just a touch is all I ask. God has gathered a whole lot of young talent and put it under one ecclesiastical roof. This is the best summary I can give for what is happening with Sojourn Music. Sojourn Community Church is a multi-site community with a strong vision for how the arts are a part of God’s kingdom-restoration in the community. You don’t see too many churches out there with this vision. But before I heap accolades on the music of two incredible singer-songwriters, Jamie Barnes and Brooks Ritter, for their latest split EP, The Mercy Seat / The War (read Sojourn's description here), let me begin by commenting on something rather unrelated to the music itself.
Jamie Barnes and Brooks Ritter are humble, generous men of God. I met Jamie several years ago when my wife and I took a field trip out to Sojourn in the summer of 2008. I met Brooks just over a year ago at the Calvin Symposium on Christian Worship in Grand Rapids. I was flying solo, and Jamie took the time to single me out and invite me to a few social gatherings where I got to hobnob with Keith Getty, Kevin Twit, Mike Cosper, and other heroes of mine. Jamie’s hospitality in that act meant a lot to me and spoke volumes about him. Brooks engaged me in a bunch of conversations, and he always exhibited the uttermost kindness and humility, even as I told him that he had an incredible, one-of-a-kind voice. These two are men of character, and that is perhaps the most important thing I could say about them.
OVERALL COMMENTS
The album itself is just incredible. It is true artistry, which does not kowtow to simplistic pop sensibilities. It is a “split EP” in the sense that it is a full, ten-song album split down the middle. The first five are Barnes’ songs; the last five are Ritter’s. All songs are either explicitly based in old church hymns, or else they are haunted by the spirits of the great English hymn writers. But this is not a “worship album.” It is definitely solo material, some of which can be (and has been) transposed into the context of corporate Christian worship (e.g. “The Mercy Seat” and “Absent from Flesh”). Recorded live at the 930 Art Center in Louisville, KY, the stylistic diversity in these ten tracks is astonishing. Jazz, gospel (black and white, mind you), blues, grunge, soul, country, rock—they’re all here. Yet this smorgasbord is no hodgepodge. The cohesion comes from its production, themes, and the souls of the singers themselves.
If you can’t afford the whole album, you must at least get Barnes’ “Absent from Flesh” and Ritter’s “The War.” In my opinion, they are the best songs on the album.
Theologically, the album is rock-solid. Texts which are based in time-tested hymns from greats like Isaac Watts are nearly always a slam dunk in the Department of Biblical Conformity. Barnes and Ritter write the kinds of songs that will last in Christian hymnody.
THE MERCY SEAT | JAMIE BARNES
Barnes says, “If we’re being honest, we all have this longing for an advocate, and a lot of the songs on my side of the EP have this hint of desperation in them.” That’s a great summary statement of the textual trajectory and musical edge which unify the five songs. Musically, Jamie provides an aural feast. His songs keep his voice in a modest vocal range, and his smooth, simple singing style perfectly fits the “longing” and “hint of desperation” he intends. My favorite feature of his music here are the use of horns, sergeantly peppered throughout the EP. The slippery, jazzy “Dark Passenger” has some moments of tight ensemble, especially among the horns. There is an exquisite moment, just around 3:44, where the vibrato between two instruments locks into eerie symmetry. Verse two is powerful:
Why do these hands withdraw from worship,
And battle your embrace?
They clinch in anger far too often,
And seldom stretch in faith.
“Jealous Arm” contains a haunting chord progression at the front-end that moves from the major tonic chord to the minor. The ghostly, Coldplay-like piano line accentuates the tense nature of revelry in the jealousy of God. The first verse:
Is this the way we repay our God?
Who among us has he not made?
Forsaking His face for the sculpted things
We have shaped with our evil hands.
And where are they now, our silent golden cows?
His swift and jealous arm has thrown them down.
The choice track, however, is “Absent from Flesh”—roomy drums, earthy claps and slaps, and wailing horns make this an exquisite, original, and inspiring piece. Co-writers Barnes and Watts, though separated by nearly three hundred years, together celebrate the eschaton:
Absent from flesh, O glorious day!
In one triumphant stroke
My reckoning paid, my charges dropped
And the bonds ‘round my hands are broke.I go where God and glory shine,
To one eternal day
This failing body I now resign,
For the angels point my way.
Hearing the unparalleled hymns of Isaac Watts so beautifully re-dressed and re-given to the modern church simply makes me want to dance naked in the streets.
THE WAR | BROOKS RITTER
Many singers, including myself, shake their fists toward the heavenlies that they were not graced with the golden voice of Brooks Ritter. No joke: the first time I heard his voice, I pegged him for a fifty-year-old, black Mississippi Delta bluesman. This twenty-something has all the soul, presence, and maturity of a voice twice his age, and he stewards his gifts well throughout this EP. “The War,” a grungy blues tune, introduces Ritter with a punch to the belly, and the left-hand-calloused fingerprints of Neil Robins’ axe-work (of Dirt Poor Robins and No More Kings) are all over this number. It’s reminiscent of Soundgarden at the height of their music-making. The text of this song’s chorus characterizes the posture of the whole album—centered upon the gospel of the finished work of Christ:
Though the scars of my sin run deep
They’re washed in the flood brought from Calvary
Remind me O Lord in my hour of deed
The war won for the redeemed!
“Good Day” takes a stylistic leap in a different direction. It is a black gospel number, through and through, full of clever colloquialisms fitting to the genre. This song rocks:
Well, hey, Jesus the God man came to the Earth
He opened his arms to the children of dirt
He was singing a new song, “Child come on I’ll show you the way”
It was a good day when the Lord came
You know it was a good dayMy Jesus came through the desert
He walked on the sea and died on the hill of Mount Calvary
He went to the grave but checked out on the third day
It was a good day when the Lord came,
It was a good, good day.
I love the thought that Jesus “checked out” of the grave on the third day like it was a hotel room. The ease with which Almighty Christ sealed His victory over death is worthy of such a thought. The next song, “Waters of Forgiveness,” is a soulful white gospel number that one could hear arranged for an all-male quartet.
In the words of Barnes: “This record, it’s more than just making music for our local church.We want to be a community of artists…So it’s important to us to publish music and to publish books and things of that nature…These songs are just a way for us to point to truth. Hopefully that’s what good art will do, point to a good God who’s the author and creator of everything.” God has given the Sojourn community a unique call with the provision of unique resources. The Mercy Seat / The War is proof that these artists continue to steward such gifts well. A while back I posted on why worship leaders should be theologians and theologians worship leaders. Barnes and Ritter are worship leader-theologians par excellence. Go get this album, people.
Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 11:31AM 
Hillsong United, Aftermath (Sparrow)
Released: February 15, 2011
Within the “imprints” of the Hillsong brand (Hillsong, United, Live, and Kids), it is United which propels their style and artistry forward. In the case of Aftermath, their movement is a retro-progression (different from a retrogression) into 80s sounds and styles. This album is atypical of what has come before in that it feels much less like a “worship album." The backing choir, congregational sound, and crowd noise are absent—it’s only solo voices and faint BGVs. There are no arena sounds and reverberant air. It is a clean, tight, studio album that appears to have been recorded on three different continents. I have no doubt that, because this is not an “arena worship” recording, there will be many Hillsong United fans at least initially disappointed. But this should not take away from the fact that Aftermath is a fabulous sonic feast, expanding our United palette with fresh tastes from the not-so-distant past.
REVIEW SUMMARY
If you are looking for new material for congregational singing, you’ve come to the wrong place. With some exception (e.g. “Rhythms of Grace”), though United undoubtedly uses these songs in their worship contexts, the melodic complexity of these songs lend themselves to performance-material rather than lifting voices in corporate worship. That said, Aftermath is still a well-produced, musical, and artistic achievement. Furthermore, the album is Christ-centered and God-exalting in its texts, though it suffers a bit from theological imprecision and scattered logical flow. If United’s goal was to provide the Church with more worship songs, I would say that previous albums (e.g. Tear Down the Walls / Across the Earth and All of the Above) have done a better job at accomplishing that end. If their goal was to artistically stretch themselves and their listener-ship musically, they have succeeded greatly. No song stands out as one I would enthusiastically recommend for congregational worship, but many songs could be fitting.
MUSICALITY
The best way I can describe the unity of styles on this album is with the label “neo-80s space galactica punk.” It is as if Talking Heads, Enya, Green Day, and the creators of Tron all got together in a collaborative project. From Cars-like moog intros (“Light Will Shine”), to Top Gun-ish airy keys and staccato bass lines (“Nova”), to programming and legato lines mixed with Enya-style vocals (“Bones”), to pumping, tremolo synths (“Search My Heart”), United appears to be jumping on the 80s retro bandwagon that pop, rock, and hip-hop artists alike have been exploring as of late. United seems to be stepping off their penchant toward heavy tom-work in the drumming. “Rhythms of Grace” is a great example of this, where, at about the 3:20-marker, the drummer has chosen a creative, unorthodox, indie-style beat.
Track six, “b.e. (interlude),” gives a shout-out to Hillsong Live’s “Beautiful Exchange,” with the haunting choir in the background, singing,
Holy are You, God
Holy is Your Name
With everything I’ve got
My heart will sing, how I love You
Joel Houston, as Executive Producer and songwriter/co-songwriter for many of the tracks, is extremely talented and creative. This project seems to reveal that Houston was challenging himself with something different. This album is an enjoyable listen, with authentic artistry in the musicality and production from top to bottom.
THEOLOGICAL CONTENT
That Brooke (Fraser) Ligertwood had very little involvement with the album (the credits indicate that she sang BGVs) shows, especially in the songwriting. Ligertwood, especially in recent years, has provided a bit more biblical depth and theological reflection in her material. Aftermath has no “standout” song, textually speaking, which parallels the depth of “Desert Song” (Ligertwood) or “You Hold Me Now” (Morgan/Crocker) from United’s previous album, Tear Down the Walls / Across the Earth (read my review of that album here). That said, Aftermath is beautifully Christ- and Gospel-centered. The unifying theme and song of the album, “Aftermath,” is a rich metaphor for how the Gospel reaches sinners in the beautiful mess of the incarnation of Christ:
The skies lay low where You are
On the earth You rest Your feet
Yet the hands that cradle the stars
Are the hands that bled for me
In a moment of glorious surrender
You were broken for all the world to see
Lifted out of the ashes
I am found in the aftermath
“Aftermath” implies that an important and decisive battle took place, yet the battle was not clean. This is a wonderful picture of the cross—the deepest love possible poured out, combined with the greatest injustice that ever took place. The cross is simultaneously a place of healing and a place of wreckage. “Aftermath” gathers all those concepts into one word filled with rich imagery, which is quite remarkable.
Especially against the backdrop of historic Christian hymnody and the biblical Psalms, United’s texts continue their general trend of being more “impressionistic” as opposed to logically coherent. Take, for instance, the opening verse and pre-chorus of “Go”:
In the Father there is freedom
There is hope in the Name that is Jesus
Lay your life down, give it all now
We are found in the love of the Saviour
We’ve come alive in You
Set free to show the truth
Our lives will never be the same
There isn’t much that helps these statements hang together in a logical progression, which ends up seeming more like mere emoting than making any cohesive statement in the song. The same song also exhibits the triumphalism that some have rightly criticized in the past:
We’re giving it all away, away
We’re giving it all to go Your way
We are sold out to Your calling
Certainly we need to make room for consecration. We should sing statements of commitment, even whole-hearted commitment. But I have dialogued with not a few folks who are weary of singing such words when they know that their sinful, broken hearts feel very inauthentic when such lyrics are sung. I admit myself that, much of the time, I don’t feel sold out to God’s calling; I don’t give it all to go God’s way. Such triumphal lyrics need to be administered in careful dosages, set in the context of Gospel-response and consecration as opposed to an “I’m trying, God! I can do it!” mentality. I’m not saying that this is what United has done or that this was the songwriter’s intent, but I am saying that too much of this can either drive people away or lead them to false senses of their own spiritual power and moral success. “Like an Avalanche” is a good counter-example to that issue of triumphalism, displaying consecration as Gospel-borne response:
Trading Your righteousness for shame
Despite all my pride and foolish ways…
Oh, take my life
Take all that I am
With all that I am I will love You
One other concern on the album is with some “Trinitarian confusion” in the song “Father” (I mention this issue in my article on my criteria for choosing worship songs.) A problem exists in evangelical worship that shows up more than we’d like to admit. There are times when our prayers or our songs can speak to or of one member of the Trinity about works or characteristics that really are attributed to another member. In “Father,” the following is sung:
Father
Let heaven and earth collide in the endless wonder
Of Your love upon the cross
The collision of heaven and earth is most precisely a reference to the incarnation of Jesus, God the Son, the second member of the Trinity. Furthermore, though the Father’s love was certainly present at the cross, “Your love upon the cross” is a phrase one would expect to be singing to God the Son. But the whole chorus begins with the vocative, “Father,” indicating that what follows is addressed to Him. Hillsong has an incredible international platform, and because of that, they must be aware that they have the privilege of teaching and conveying both spirituality and theology to a broad swath of the Church catholic. Theological precision should be a high-priority analytical grid that they perpetually apply to their new material. The scope of their influence demands it.
I thank God for Hillsong United. Like never before, more tribes, tongues, and nations are unified in worship in ways previously unthinkable. God is using them to stir hearts, to promote justice, and to form people into the image and likeness of Christ. May God bear fruit for His kingdom through Aftermath.
Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 9:52AM If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that, even at the relative beginning of my career as a pastor and worship leader, I want to be a part of God's work in mentoring and raising up the next generation of pastors and worship leaders. Every other week, I meet with a bright young man, Robert, who I believe God is calling to ministry in some capacity. Every once in a while, we have an assignment. This one was for Robert to use some of the analytical tools we've been discussing to review a new worship album. I encouraged him to review the important criteria for choosing worship songs and to take a look at some of my reviews. After processing a few drafts, this is what Robert produced. He did a great job. Feel free to comment!
*****
I like to say that this album is a cotton candy album. It is sweet and good but its volume is largely disproportionate to its density. Jesus Culture itself is actually a series of conferences which started in 1999. Out of these conferences came the Jesus Culture music which has its sights on sparking a revival of God-fearing, Jesus-glorifying Christians on a global scale. Come Away is a live album.
MUSICALITY
The music in the album was comfortably overshadowed by the lyrics. The musical arrangements never distracted from the text being sung. Towards the beginning of the album the music felt one-dimensional and wasn’t a whole lot to write home about. However, there was a noticeable progression in the complexity of the music as the album played. The first track kicked the album off with a repetitive, four-on-the-floor rhythm accompanying solid, down-stroking guitar chords. The 4/4 with down-strokes lingered with nearly the entire album broken up by a few of the songs which had dynamic rhythm, volume and guitar riffs such as track three, "You Are My Passion" (one of the two strongest tracks). The album closed with a pointed rhythm and a lightly syncopated vocal refrain. This closing track felt the strongest of all ten tracks. Mostly because the much repeated refrain was musically interesting enough to keep from becoming monotonous, but at the same time not so interesting that it was distracting from the words. Come Away’s music felt typical of most modern worship: sincere, bright and easy to pick up for Sunday morning.
THEOLOGICAL CONTENT
In the textual territory, the album was full of strong and largely vertical worship lyrics (vertical worship=talking to God; horizontal worship=talking to creation about God) . One could step behind these lyrics and worship with them sincerely. However, they did not really delve into fresh aspects of God’s glory. The album was full of a lot of stock “christianese” such as, “Come into my heart,” and, “You’re so amazing, God.” I mean that not to say that they did a bad job, but rather that they only said what one would expect. My other critique for the text of the album is that the words are extremely "seven-eleven-ish" (one phrase repeated over and over). This is not bad, however there is a demographic which finds it difficult to worship with such repetition. There is nothing within the lyrics which is theologically unsound or out of context (both biblical context and contextually with the rest of the lyrics: no random, disjointed phrases). Some of my favorite lyrics on the album were from track six, "Freedom Reigns," which talks about the freedom gained from Christ. The song’s refrain is,
If you’re tired and thirsty, there is freedom
Give your all to Jesus, there is freedom.
These lyrics stuck out to me particularly because they draw a synonymous line between God’s grace and freedom. Most of the words are pointed directly at God, praying for Him to bring a passion for Christ to the youth of this generation. All in all, the text is solid.
As a final summation, Come Away is an album full of good 2-3 minute worship songs. Unfortunately, every song was an average length of 7:45. This made the songs feel overly repetitive and "fluffy" (except for the final track, "One Thing Remains"). I like the album and commend Jesus Culture for their work in bringing this music to the table
-Robert
