It’s unfortunate that the latest Hillsong Live release, This Is Our God has been stained by Michael Guglielmucci deceiving people into believing he had cancer. The CD turned out to be one of their stronger efforts in recent years. OK, admittedly, that’s not saying all that much since the last few Hillsong Live albums have been pretty lackluster. But with long time leader Darlene Zschech taking a less prominent role in the worship team, the line between “Hillsong Live” and “Hillsong United” has been blurred. What you hear now as “Hillsong Live” is pretty much what we’ve been hearing on “Hillsong United” albums – a straight-ahead, no-nonsense alt-rock approach to worship music. And there-in lies the problem. I’m not sure if it’s simply the limitations of the musicians in the band but the instrumental arrangements to every track are blandly similar. I can see that the songwriters have written some great material this time around but frustratingly, the band interprets the songs in the same fashion every single time. Frankly, they desperately need to find better musicians because the guitar player can’t play a decent lead to save his life. And the piano is relatively non-existent in the mix. So, what we end up here on the album is a wall of sound created by a whole bunch of guitars strumming basic chords for 70-plus minutes which is pretty tedious listening. And that’s a shame because some of these songs deserve better treatment. Once you get past the run-of-the-mill playing, you can find some mega-church filling anthems like “He is Lord”, “Your Name High”, “Stronger” and “You Are Here (the Same Power)”.
retroGrade : C+
This is Our God
Artist: Hillsong Live
Featured worship leaders: Darlene Zschech, Brooke Fraser, Joel Houston, Matt Crocker, Mike Guglielmucci, Sam Knock, Jad Gillies and Reuben Morgan
label: Hillsong/Integrity
released: August 2008
Official site: Hillsong Music Australia
TrackListing: 1 Your Name High (Houston) 3:54
2 Run (Houston) 3:20
3 Desert Song (Fraser) 4:10
4 This Is Our God (Morgan) 5:48
5 He Is Lord (Fielding) 4:54
6 High and Lifted Up (Guglielmucci, Zschech) 4:36
7 Stronger (Fielding, Morgan) 4:26
8 Healer (Guglielmucci) 7:04
9 You Are Here (The Same Power) (George, Pankratz) 2:50
10 You Deserve (Crocker, Dunlop) 4:36
11 Across the Earth (Crocker, Guglielmucci, Morgan) 4:28
12 Where We Belong (Davies, Morgan) 5:31
13 Sing to the Lord (Crocker, Guglielmucci) 6:43
14 You’ll Come (Fraser) 5:03
15 Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Lemel, Traditional) 1:45
16 With Everything (Houston) 7:54
Oh, geez, get real. There’s not a single song on this record that glorifies man. If you don’t like the music, fine, whatever, that’s legit. But let’s keep the gross overstatements to a minimum please.
[...] was hard for me NOT to just CUT and PASTE my last Hillsong review for this review of a_CROSS//the_EARTH: Tear Down the Walls, especially since the majority of their [...]
Can’t you see the heart behind the songs, the arrangements,the musicians, the songwriters, the singers and everyone involved in this project?! God is doing something big with these guys and we will continue to see them for years to come. Now these musicians are amazing, so i don”t get where the person who wrote this review got these ideas… so get real and most importantly get real with God and truly listen to the songs and even the instruments and you’ll feel Gods presence every time even if it is a simple chord. God Bless
. . . Which is pretty much my main complaint about CCM in general; it lacks musical imagination.
My other complaint is it’s as self-centered as secular music. Just listen to he lyrics in most of it. “I, I, I, me, me, me.”
It’s a shame because there are some truly amazing voices in the Christian music scene.
“it’s as self-centered as secular music” – CAROL
Oh, geez, get real. There’s not a single song on this record that glorifies man. If you don’t like the music, fine, whatever, that’s legit. But let’s keep the gross overstatements to a minimum please.
[...] was hard for me NOT to just CUT and PASTE my last Hillsong review for this review of a_CROSS//the_EARTH: Tear Down the Walls, especially since the majority of their [...]
WHAT ARE YOU GUYS TALKING ABOUT?!?!?! get real!!
Can’t you see the heart behind the songs, the arrangements,the musicians, the songwriters, the singers and everyone involved in this project?! God is doing something big with these guys and we will continue to see them for years to come. Now these musicians are amazing, so i don”t get where the person who wrote this review got these ideas… so get real and most importantly get real with God and truly listen to the songs and even the instruments and you’ll feel Gods presence every time even if it is a simple chord. God Bless