15th September, 2010

JUSTIN MICHAEL

Album: Here Is Love

Artist:  Bethel Live

Year: 2009
Label: Bethel Music/Indie

In A Word: Passionate

Bethel music seems to have something rare in the American praise and worship scene; it’s the raw kind of music you’d expect out of Aussie or Kiwi churches.  It has a sense of urgency to it, the vocals are all quite intense, the bands are just that bit sonically thinner than most and live really does seem, well, live!

With leaders out the front like Chris Quilala, Kim Walker Smith and Kristene Mueller, you’ll hear less than predictable pop voices.  There’s no wall of sound vocal approach here - the band even seems too small for the modern palate - but perhaps that’s why it works for so many listeners.

There’s a distinct lack of pretence here which honestly makes their music much easier to like or dislike. It actually sits outside the Christian contemporary music radio world nicely and therefore allows itself to fit into a genre that’s much smaller than the radio praise and worship. It’s probably indie-rock really, but really, it’s just something, well, different. Different is good. Right? 

The Bethel crew have collected great songs from the likes of Delirious? (My Soul Sings), Mike Guglielmucci (Healer), Lindell Cooley (I Need You More) and CompassionArt (King Of Wonders).

They’ve also brought some of their own writing to the fore with the theme song Here Is Love and, among others, put in a nice touch with the ‘spontaneous’ You Make Me Happy.  These very live moments aren’t to everyone’s taste- it can have the effect of making you feel like you 'had to be there', but for others it’ll be a great moment of personal worship.

If you’re a ‘live and in the can’ fan and you like a bit of raw, surprising and very live worship, then take a bite of this cd/dvd combo from a very passionate collective.