WORSHIP ALBUM REVIEW:
- Artist: Elevation Worship
- Album: Wake Up The Wonder
- Label: Provident
- Standout Songs: "The King Among Us" and "Fortress"
- Score: 19/25
A very well-produced track captures the stadium-filled praise from Time Warner Cable Arena this past August in Charlotte, North Carolina. Elevation Worship represents a thriving local mega-church that has heart for their community yet they surely have something in their worship expression that blesses the greater Body of Christ! This much anticipated project stands out amongst the growing number of modern worship releases for that very reason. You cannot deny the authenticity that something grown locally brings. Thankfully, the exponential growth of their franchise has not watered down the passion from Elevation Worship’s earlier releases.
The call for revival is a clear message in the tracks on Wake Up The Wonder. How do you wake up people to the wonder of God? The yearning of this energetic project declares that theme and aspiration with soaring anthems, some weaved of synth-EDM influenced pop. Musically, it is tasteful and will be worthy to track on your daily commute or run. The overall artistry is good as well, although I would hope for more originality, metaphor or story in the lyric–things sadly lacking in even the best of modern worship. However, this CD succeeds in its aim to lead us to open our hearts and be more aware of God in our midst.
As far as theology and thought, the theme of personal and corporate revival and the cry of earnest praise is clear. This is one of the primary themes in mainstream-modern worship today. The idea is that God's presence if experienced more will bring more life change and overflow.
“The King Among us, and his glory is around us, and His fire is flowing as we sing, and the Savior is for us, His love is victorious, and revival is rising in His name.”
I love the song “The King is Among Us” as well as others on this CD. However, I did not find too many profound biblical themes beyond the personal perspective. For instance, what character trait of God do we declare? Where is the transcendent in the personal expression and prayer? This is probably my only real criticism of this work. Of course, we cannot expect every song to be like the “Give Me Faith” or the old hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Something in-between those two songs might be ideal–personal and yet also a bit more about who God is. The “love that will not let me go" and "A Mighty fortress is our God” were included with several other lyrical quotes from older hymns.
Even with my bit of critique, I can surely sing these with passion and am confident the music will bless many. The congregational participation is something I rate high. What else? it sings as honest of a prayer one might expect. Songs of praise and worship are essentially prayer. This is how I evaluate worship music: “How does it pray?” This one prays well!
NOTE: I am using the rubric in the above graphic to "score" and rate each worship album from now on here on RKBLOG.com.
null