Of the middle eight songs, my favourites are Michael Morrow's Lift Up Your Heads and Trevor Hodge's No Other Name.
Michael's brilliance is that he can take an obscure biblical image - the anthropomorphised gates of Psalm 24 - and make us not just understand it, but feel it. Completely non cliche. We hear the words and have a vivid picture in our minds. And so wonderfully joyful. Why would anyone be glum? Jesus has opened the gates of heaven.
Trevor Hodge's No Other Name is a different kind of song. A bit epic. But I find I'm wanting to keep on listening to it. Think it will work really well in church.
I think Undivided could be emu's best cd yet. I'll be listening for a while.
Anyone else got their copy?
not yet.
ReplyDeleteThey must favour composers...me neither. But I'm with you on Lift Up Your Heads. Brilliant brilliant song.
ReplyDeleteNot yet either, but enjoying the samples online. Who is singing? don't recognize the first few voices.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I'm REALLY enjoying the samples. Can't wait for it to arrive. I agree, it's the most awesome by far! Congratulations...
ReplyDeleteAll the singers are from the US. Don't know any of them!
ReplyDeleteReally? That strikes me as a baaad move, on a number of levels.
ReplyDelete(And it's still not here. Harrumph!)
I think it says on the EMU website that ordinary people who haven't written the songs or anything will be having theirs sent out on the 29th? The samples online aren't bad but for some of them it's not really enough for me to get the gist of the whole song. However, I have been playing This Life I Live and You Never Change as background numbers during Communion since going to TWIST earlier this year. I like slow ones...so much easier to play.
ReplyDeleteAnthony - wait till you hear it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know...that's my problem! ;-)
ReplyDelete(Don't worry Karen - I'm so busy I'd forgotten to miss it until I saw this post again!)
Arrived this morning.
ReplyDeleteAs Surely as the Dawn - that's the original 'test' lyric, surely?! It's definitely the same voice. Anyway, I'm glad, because the recording and song work well.
The Heavens Sing...well, I see now why they're all American voices, but it all sounds too Nashville for me ;-)
Would've liked Safe in the Saviour's Hands to make the cut :(
On the whole, though, I think I'm disappointed. Lift Up Your Heads is not new. This Life and In His Name both look useful. But none of the others grab me. (Only half an album of good songs, and I'm whinging. Yep, there's something wrong with me.)
No Other Name...Simone, I'm generally unable to sing and clap at the same time, but this one was too much even for me. Or is that, even too much for me? Or much too even? Even, regular, get it? Boom tish.
Listen a few more times. See if it grows on you.
ReplyDeleteYou can sing 'safe in our saviour's hands'! I might try a rewrite sometime. That was the 4th or 5th tune we'd tried for As surely as the dawn. SSH might take a while to get right.
As Surely has a completely new recording. US singer. But pp on piano which gives it the familiar sound.
I'm listening to it.
ReplyDeleteFirst impressions? More Mutt Lang than George Martin.
I'd heard it already, I'm sure of it. Perhaps PP updated the sample on the EMU feedback site, which I peeked at a couple of months ago.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't recorded a couple of months ago! I heard it for the first time on the 22 Oct.
ReplyDeleteOk. I checked. I was wrong. First time this decade.
ReplyDeleteThey are similarish though.
How's this for resurrecting an old post?
ReplyDeleteI repent. It's better than I'd said last year. I must have been very grumpy about Safe in the Saviour's Hands ;-)
Don't worry, God's getting in a laugh at my expense: the CD has been mysteriously insubstantial for most of the last year. It hasn't left my possession, but it cannot be found anywhere, which is pretty out of the ordinary for a control freak like myself. So now to listen to it in the car, I need three cables, a gizmo, and my phone. That'll learn me. And I'll keep quiet about the new CD when it comes....