Worship Review // New Life Worship // Strong God

This new album by New Life Worship is a great all round album, made by a church, for the church. They have recognized that with so much contemporary christian music out there, everyone in the congregation has a different preference in style. So rather than create there own style, they have formed an album that flows through moments of Tomlin, Jobe, Wickham, Planetshakers and more, allowing everyone in the congregation to enjoy worship at it fullest.

When looking at new music, I break it down into what the songs are physically doing. This approach, although not always great for appreciating musicality, and artistry, allows for much greater ease when planning through service orders, events, and worship moments during mid week planning. It allows for you to say “i need a song that sounds like….” or “I need a song which does this: …..” and find one quickly.

Track 1 | Jesus Reigns
Opens with pad, and lead guitar explaining the coming vocal line of Ooooohs.
The verse and chorus kind of start off low, before powering back into the fun Oooooh line. After a couple choruses, and ooohs, we get to a bridge lyrically speaks about the power of Jesus’ name, and serves as a transition into a vocal and drum only chorus allowing the band to rebuild the chorus back up to full volume and layers for one final time of Ooooooh fun.

Track 2 | All To Him
The Verses start off as low easy to sing lines, building up to a Chorus which is anthematic declaring who Jesus is. The bridge is almost a mix of the chorus’ anthematic style and a chant. This will be a great go to middle speed song that we can use when we want to wrap up a worship time with a no slow song. Kind of live Kari Jobe’s “Savior’s Here”

Track 3 | Victorious God
Opening with drums is always fun. The Verses / Pre Chorus are a kind of corporate call to worship, with the lines telling us what to, leading into a Chorus which then responds by singing to Jesus lyrically, celebrating Christ’s victory. The bridge then mirrors the verse’s style by moving back into that sing-to-your-neighbour style that some churches enjoy.

Track 4 | Strong God (Title Track)
Big opening with ethereal guitars, strings, and marching snare.
The song kind of follows the previous track’s style with a group singing lyric. This one does feela bit more like the How Great is Our God, “Sing with me….” line though, rather than, Victorious God’s Turn-To-Your-Neighbour-And-Say… feel

The Bridge starts off low with a nice basic group vocal part that brings a uniting feel to the congregation feel, but then gets huge almost showing how much bigger God is than us through the strength of the music over the vocals. Sometimes this can be an error, but this time it works extremely well.

Track 5 & 6 | More Than Enough & More Than Enough Reprise
We have seen a lot of churches cease the awkward practice of the Brooke-Fraser-Type-Cast recently. If you are unfamiliar with this, for a few years, the only songs women with higher falsetto range were only scheduled for were Brooke Fraser songs. Since we have moved past that this is going to be one of the new songs women will get the opportunity to lead with guys providing the BVGs. I love the fact that its not just a soft song, but gets big too.

Track 7 | Ascribe
Begins with a warm picking acoustic line with strings in the background for all the Phil Wickham fans.
The verse/chorus then leads into a falsetto part to cement the Wickham feel.
As the song progresses, marching snare drums join in, with tight BVG harmonies, with extra percussion, and strings add extra layers to make this song become large before it drops down again. Almost has a Christmas Feel to it.

Track 8 & 9 | Unassailable & Unassailable Reprise
This is your token start low, get bigger, drop down bridge, build up, drop down chorus, big chorus worship song.

Track 10 | Who Compares
This is the song on the album that you will probably skip after the first time hearing it. One of the generic filler songs, that will get play time only when you need a special song for a sermon about God being incomparable.

Track 11 | Love Divine
Opens with a cool modern keys feel, and background effects. I’m excited for the loops and multi tracks for this one.
The band kicks in with full drums, and a huge vocal line of Oooohs (which i’m a huge fan of) before the bridge, which then exalts God, and his divine love which conquered death.

Track 12 | Alive and Free
The end track, and it sounds like one. Big planetshakers style synth, pad, and keys intro, with a tight bass line. Again, the multitracks and loops for this one will be awesome.
The chorus is a great upbeat jumping/dancing speed with easy lyrics to either sing or shout. Has one of those breakdowns where the congregation is shown how to clap in time for a few measures, before being left on there own to watch in horror as the drummer gets more technical and they get lost, before punching back into the upbeat chorus to end.

 

Josh Pidgley serves as a worship pastor in Colorado.  You can connect with him here.