Matt Redman
Blessed Be Your Name: The
Songs of Matt Redman Vol. 1
(sixsteps/EMI)
Released July 2005
reviewed by Russ Breimeier
Sounds like …
many of today's best-known
modern worship songs performed in their original
Brit pop/rock style that most clearly resembles
Delirious, with obvious Coldplay, U2, and Travis
influences.
At a glance
… taken from a recent
worship conference, this live hits album is a near
perfect collection of many of the best songs in
modern worship.
|
Track
Listing |
1.
Blessed Be Your Name
2. Holy Moment
3. Once Again
4. The Heart of
Worship
5. Let My Words Be Few
6. Lord, Let Your
Glory Fall
7. Undignified
8. Better Is One Day
9. Facedown
10. I Will Offer Up My
Life
11. Let Everything
That Has Breath
12.
The Father's Song |
Depending on when
you mark its start, the modern worship movement has
been going strong for approximately ten years,
providing the Church with a plentiful supply of new
praise songs that have quickly become standards. And
if you check out
lists of the most widely used standards, UK
worship leader
Matt Redman is not surprisingly a
recurring name. It's fair to say he helped spark
this worship movement, along with
Delirious and Hillsong Australia. As those two
already have anthologies of their own, it's only
fitting that this pioneer now be recognized for his
contributions with Blessed Be Your Name: The
Songs of Matt Redman Vol. 1.
Judging by the
familiar track list, there aren't any new songs here
that can't be heard on any previous Redman album (or
countless other worship recordings, for that
matter). Yet everything is new in the sense
that it is also a live recording, taken from a
performance at a worship songwriter's conference
last year in Georgia. While people often balk at
live hits collections, in this case it's more than
appropriate and effective. As a virtually complete
hour-long concert, there's continuity to the sound
that wouldn't have been present with a collection of
studio tracks dating back to 1997. It also keeps the
focus on Redman's reason for being—leading others in
worship, though this disc's crowd noise is minimal.
The set list
covers all of the essentials and pads them with
Redman's next best material—nothing's missing,
nothing's inappropriately added. And though some of
Redman's studio originals remain the definitive
arrangements and performances (including great duets
with Martin Smith and the legendary Paul Carrack),
each of these live Brit pop/rock renditions is
strong, if not an improvement in some cases. Though
his newer material generally hasn't been as strong,
here's hoping this really is Redman's first volume
in a series of anthologies chronicling first-rate
worship music.
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