Two years on from the release of Intimacy and the popularity of the worship music institution known as Matt Redman continues unabated. While its predecessor could be regarded as the culmination of Redman's work up to that point, this new album sees him starting to look in new directions.
The album kicks off driven by a guitar hook which wouldn't feel out of place performed by a range of pop-rock acts. Most of the U2 references present in Redman's older material have slipped into the background, but it fairly soon becomes clear that while he has begun looking in new directions there's not been a substantial move in any one of them. The album quickly slips back into a fairly downbeat style, which occasionally works well with some nice programming in places, but which doesn't really
sparkle.
Redman's vocals have never been his strongest point, and part of the problem with the album is that his voice doesn't allow for enough variance in melody. They do occasionally work well, particularly on some of the more intimate pieces, but sadly that is not the general case. In music as vocal-led as the congregational worship music this is surely intended to be, the arrangements are dictated by those vocals and the result is an album which feels constrained.
It is all too often the case that the pioneers end up becoming complacent, sitting comfortably in the niche they've carved out. This album doesn't entirely match that description, but having worked alongside Delirious? and others to bring a more youthful paradigm to the fore in the worship music marketplace, Matt Redman does seem to be in danger of becoming too predictable.
2.5 tocks
Similar sounding releases
1999Tim Hughes / Martyn LayzellReward
2000U2All That You Can't Leave Behind
2004MarillionMarbles
1997Carolyn ArendsFeel Free
2004Scott MurrayStutter
1997Jars of ClayMuch AfraidMore from Matt Redman
1997The Friendship And The Fear
2001All Around the World
1998Intimacy
1998Now to Live the Life - Soul Survivor Live '98
2004Facedown
2005Blessed Be Your Name: Songs of Matt Redman Volume I
