5th September, 2007
JUSTIN MICHAEL
Album: Beautiful News
Artist: Matt Redman
Year: 2007
Label: Soul Survivor
Enhanced: No
In a word: Rich
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"Don’t listen to this album just to hear great songs. Don’t listen to it just to pick a track for church. And don’t listen to it to critique alongside your other dozen ‘worship’ albums. Just play it a few times and let the songs settle. This beautiful news deserves to be savoured." |
Soul Survivor has introduced the church to some of it’s most honoured song writers over the last decade or so. Matt Redman is a name synonomous with church life today thanks largely to a little ditty he wrote a while back titled The Heart Of Worship.
He is one of those rare writers who has been able to tap into the global conscience of the church through music. The artist's job is to express the things the rest of us have always wanted to articulate. The worship songwriter's task is made all the more challenging when you realise they write so that we can sing something of the divine and of the super-natural; something of the relationship of God to man. With Beautiful News Redman has once again given us an album driven by a writer inspired by the search.
The titles of the songs are clear indicators of the themes: Beautiful News, You Never Let Go, Yes And Amen, Fearfully And Wonderfully Made, Blessing, and Thank You For Healing Me.
The new recording of You Never Let Go is immaculate and breathes something new into the song. A Greater Song, co-written with Paul Baloche and recorded on his album of the same name, finds a new interpretation on Beautiful News with the anthem-like focus we have come to expect of the Brits.
Musically, the album is a step up. There is so much more going on here than you can absorb with one listen. Check out Yes And Amen for some sounds that just may give you shivers. There is the heartbeat of a baby at 16 weeks in the womb that begins Fearfully And Wonderfully Made, the majesty of a string ensemble with a piano on the final two cut - When All Is Said And Done and If You Know You’re Loved - that is soul stirring.
As a music and creative arts pastor, I probably think way too much about music that is used in church. There is the consideration of lyric, song structure and a song's compatibility with congregations. There is also that sixth sense we hope we have to pick when a songwriter truly means what they write and has the word of truth burning in them. Of Redman I have no doubt this is true.
Don’t listen to this album just to hear great songs. Don’t listen to it just to pick a track for church. And don’t listen to it to critique alongside your other dozen ‘worship’ albums. Just play it a few times and let the songs settle. This beautiful news deserves to be savoured.
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