Hillsong United [Across The Earth: Tear Down The Walls]
Posted June 02, 2009
By christianmusicreview,
[MAIN REVIEW]
Hillsong Church has long drawn its worship leaders from the deep and talented pool of songwriters discovered in its United youth ministry, which includes over 3,000 young people at the church’s Sydney and suburban campuses. My initial feedback as a long-time collector of Hillsong and United is that the new album is on par with previous great albums from Hillsong and "Soon" and "You Hold Me Now" are great new worship anthems from the writers and singers of "Lead Me To The Cross", "Mighty To Save" and "From The Inside Out". I hear Joel Houston and Darlene Zschech on a few songs and I love the vocals on the song "Soon", which is written by Brooke (Fraser) Ligertwood and the song is beautiful. Also, I'm not sure of the name of the male singer on "You Hold Me Now" another great song, but he reminds me of Chris Tomlin. “Across The Earth: Tear Down The Walls” features 10 brand new live praise & worship songs and new recordings of “Desert Song” & “Your Name High”, previously released on “This Is Our God” by Hillsong.
“Across The Earth: Tear Down The Walls” is Hillsong United’s first new live CD since 2006. I’ve been singing “The Stand”, “From The Inside Out”, “Mighty To Save”, “Salvation Is Here” and many other Hillsong classics at my church for many years and I expect there will be several more worship classics from this album. One of the standout songs to me is the first song “Freedom Is Here”. From the opening keyboard part and pulsing drum beat and live audience participation, I knew I was in for a real treat with this album. The next three songs keep the energy going and this album was meant to be experienced along with a live audience as these are truly corporate worship songs.
The new recording of “Desert Song”, written by Brooke (Fraser) Ligertwood is another standout song for me and the vocals and sweet chorus of the song are very engaging. The anthemic “Tear Down The Walls” is a great call to unity and reminded me of “The Stand” which is one of my all-time favorites. The songs I keep coming back to over and over are “Soon” and “You Hold Me Now”. I’m looking forward to singing both of those songs with fellow believers “soon and very soon”. “Your Name High”, written by Joel Houston is another beautiful song that had me singing along and the closing song “Yours Forever” reminded me of an upbeat newsboys song in the style of “I Am Free”.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I'm impressed by the consistent quality and fresh worshipful songs that come from Hillsong United. “Across The Earth: Tear Down The Walls” is no exception. A must-have for your praise and worship collection.
Rating: 9.4 out of 10 (94%, A)
Review written by: Kevin Davis | Review can also be found here.
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