hm8080's Full Review: For This Cause by Darlene Zschech
Hillsongs Australia: A Brief Intro
I must say I am not really a big fan of Hillsongs Australia’s latest live worship CD, their 2001 You Are My World recording which I feel is overly done It is, like all other Hillsongs live worship CDs of late, highly polished, well-choreographed, well-rehearsed and a tad over-the-top most of the times.
If you’re Christian and you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere in Nevada, well, Hillsongs is an Australian Christian worship team made up of multi-talented musicians and song-writers led by their main worship leader, Darlene Zschech. They sprang into the world Christian live worship music back in the early and mid 90s and in the era where most churches were singing and playing Integrity and Hosanna music. Very soon, their songs like Anything Is Possible, Shout to the Lord, Power of Your Love, Potter’s Hand became regularly sung praise and worship songs in churches all over the world. I believe their website is www.hillsongs.au where you’ll find more information about them.
Reviewing a Christian live worship CD is tricky…very tricky! On the one hand, you want to be as impartial as you can be, not sounding like you’re trying to preach or anything, yet, on the other, you have to constantly remind yourself that live worship CDs are not written for the entertainment factor, but rather, to inspire people into worship. But recordings can never capture the spirit of God on a silver piece of plastic platter. So how does one go about reviewing a live worship CD? Lyrical content? Sound quality? Music quality? I have only one rule to guide me, just write whatever you feel, just like any other normal CD.
For This Cause
Their 2000 recording, For This Cause is sometimes viewed as their best album ever, breaking away from the traditional tunes of their past albums. This album reflects the talents and blessings at Hillsongs, touching the world with well executed songs, easily remembered lyrics and tunes, and generally, a very uplifting feel. The CD captures and inspires the work of God in this church of talented people. And Darlene’s voice is stronger and even more beautiful than previous releases. For this release, Reuben Morgan, one of the main song contributors to Hillsong’s albums since 1996’s God is In the House, co-leads as worship leader with Darlene.
More contemporary sound
For This Cause introduces more contemporary Christian songs into the live worship CD genre. From the opening track of One Day right to the last track Everyday, the whole album has a very contemporary feel.
One Day is aptly placed as the album opener, “So blessed, I can’t contain it, so much I gotta give it away.” The rest of the album testifies to this simple line, so blessed with love and talents that they just have to inspire and share it with the rest of the world. For This Cause contains 14 songs in total and the last track, Everyday which is also the opening track on Hillsongs’ United Live (their youth worship recording) Everyday CD. By far the best of the songs contained in For This Cause are the wonderfully written, beautiful worship songs of Darlene’s, It Is You and You Are Near. Both says play out wonderfully and inspires and carries the worshipper along on “Wings on Heaven I will soar.”
Other notable songs on the CD are Dwell In Your House, which opens with a simple yet effective guitar hook, the very American rock soul sounding Believe, Awesome in This Place, Lifted Me High Again and Here to Eternity. The album’s strengths lie in its more upbeat tracks, giving the listener a very high energetic feel. In fact, I used to love listening to this album while driving. I’d be singing along all the way from the start of the album to finish. The slower tracks on the album are It Is You, I Simply Live For You, Carry Me, You Are Near and For This Cause, the title track.
Non-Christians may not understand or appreciate this album, because the lyrics are standard Hillsongs fare (Reuben Morgan writes nice songs but his lyrics are very very simple). This is because, like You Are My World, the album is more suited to people who are already Christians looking for some worship music to help inspire them into a praise and worship environment. Lyrics for the song For This Cause for example, do not clue in non-Christians why the people at Hillsongs are so into God…all they say is “I’m living for This Cause…All I want is You,” repeatedly throughout the chorus of the song. This song is incidentally written Joel Houston, the son of the church’s pastor, Brian Houston who excutive produces the album with his wife, Bobbie Houston.
You may have to look pass the emotional feel of the album or the shallow lyrics to get the real picture, something had to do with some listeners. Most songs are made up of one verse which is repeated and a bridge at best. The technic used by Hillsongs is to transform these simple tunes and lyrics into a spectacle of orchestral magnitudes, turning a simple song into a major emotional event. Good or bad? You decide. But this brings about a danger which I’ll explain in the conclusion below. I’m reminded of Matt Redman’s It’s All About You song sometimes. It’s not about the music or how we sing it, but it’s all about Jesus and even the worst out-of-tune person can get into God’s presence if he or she worships from the heart, not from the mouth or mind or emotional feelings.
Overall, this is a nicely done album which does manage to inspire with some songs, especially the slower ones. I actually have the video of the live worship event and you can see many people raising their hands, some crying and in deep worship. But with such worship albums, there is one danger that is always present, are we getting emotional listening to the album, just as we do, listening to a moving theme song from a movie, or are we really being inspired to worship from the heart and being swept into God’s presence? So is it our emotions that cause the tears? Or is it deeper than that…that remains an issue between the listener and worshipper himself, and God.
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