CompassionART It’s here! However, before starting the review I wanted to share what this album is all about & how it came to be. Finding himself traversing from one extreme to the polar opposite, sitting in plush, 5-star hotel rooms before going to the slums to minister to some of the poorest people in the world, Martin Smith (Delirious? Frontman) was struck by the dichotomy of the situation. He felt called to do something about it. Calling on 11 friends to join him, he decided to give in the way he knew best; through his gift for music.
The group of 12 cleared their schedules and came together for a songwriting retreat. What makes it even more amazing a feat is that all 12 members of the group happen to be amongst the most well-known and gifted Christian songwriters in the world. The 14 songs that we see revealed on this album are the fruit of this retreat. So what makes this album different from other charity albums? The simple answer is that ALL of the proceeds raised by the album and, further still, from each song featured on the album will go directly to the poorest communities in the world. The songwriters will not receive a penny.
You can see that the pressure when reviewing this album was high, I surely couldn’t slate an album such as this regardless of the quality of the actual content. Thankfully any worries I may have had were short lived. The songwriters, who together account for at least 42 millions album sales, 82 No.1 songs, 10 Grammy Awards, 118 Dove Awards, 2 Stellar Awards, 2 American Music Awards and 98 current CCLI Top 500 songs, were joined by 7 genre defining vocalists during the recording of this album and those talents are clearly on display throughout the album.
Each track on the CompassionART album is different from the last displaying the range of styles and sounds of both the songwriters and vocalists. The amalgamation of talent on this album is truly astounding, opening with the rocking “Come to the Water” containing the passion filled and sincere vocals of Chris Tomlin followed by the funky gospel sound of “Shout of Praise”, sung by Israel Houghton, Toby Mac & Darlene Zschech. Immediately following these powerful & passionate songs is my personal favourite, “King of Wonders”, sung by Matt Redman, Tim Hughes & Joel Houston. You can easily imagine this song on the next Matt Redman album, simple chords with a beautiful chorus (sung by Hughes) that will surely be sung in churches everywhere for the next few years.
For an album that was recorded so quickly, (3 days in Abbey Road), the quality and purity of the sound is amazing. There is some great guitar work on “Fill My Cup”, which had me singing all the way to work. Overall it is a great album, I don’t want to spoil it for you aas it is truly an album which you have to listen to, I have nothing but positive comments to make about this album. The fact that every single time this album is bought/played in church you know it is helping improve & save lives in the poorest communities in the world makes it worth buying in itself, it’s an added bonus that the music is great too. A definate must-have album.
Jono rating 5 stars out of 5
To Buy the album from survivor.co.uk click here
No comments:
Post a Comment