In 2001 and 2002, Michael W. Smith took what seemed like a detour at the time into straight-ahead worship music, releasing Worship <\/i>and Worship Again<\/i>. Following an astronomical career in the CCM\/pop crossover world, it seemed a bit of a chancey career move, but the efforts paid off both in popularity and in setting a new standard for the worship music genre.<\/p>\n
When he then returned to his more pop-oriented efforts (2004\u2019s Healing Rain<\/i> and Stand<\/i>, released in 2006), it seemed to some, particularly with the latter project, that Smitty had lost his way in the pop world. Make no mistake, each of the discs produced solid songs and decent hits, but the passion was less, if not gone. <\/p>\n
Thankfully, Smith returns with another live worship album, A New Hallelujah<\/i> (released This is a disc you can put in your car CD player for a long trip and just let play over and over and over. Each successive spin deepens the listener\u2019s engagement with the material and with God, the focus of this album of live worship.<\/p>\n Opening with a short drum corps, Smith and crew then launch right into a tight three-song set of new up-tempo worship tunes: \u201cPrepare Ye The Way,\u201d the title track, and the light island vibe of \u201cWhen I Think Of You.\u201d The latter two are enhanced by the appearance of \u201cA New Hallelujah\u201d is a modern worship classic-in-the making with lines like \u201cCan you hear there\u2019s a new song breaking out from the children of freedom? \u00a0\/ Every race and every nation sing it out, sing a new hallelujah \/ Let us sing love to the nation, bringing hope of the grace that has freed us\u2026. Sing it out, sing a new hallelujah \/ Arise, let the church arise! Let love reach to the other side! \/ Alive, come alive. Let the song arise.\u201d As Smith leads the crowd in the song, you can feel his passion — and the crowd feeds off that as the whole business turns into something more. Something God-honoring and God-exalting.<\/p>\n Smitty\u2019s take on \u201cAmazing Grace \/ My Chains Are Gone\u201d (adapted by Chris Tomlin for the movie \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d) and his version of \u201cI Surrender All\u201d (with Coalo Zamorano) prove that there is still much life and meat in the hymns of the church.<\/p>\n Other highlights: \u201cDeep In Love With You,\u201d Smith\u2019s love song to his savior; \u201cGrace,\u201d a live version of one of the strongest cuts from Stand<\/i>, and \u201cHelp Is On The Way,\u201d an outstanding duet with fellow worship leader Israel Houghton. <\/p>\n Smith closes the disc with a rousing rocker, \u201cThe River Is Rising,\u201d that would have made a great opener, but makes a fantastic closer with the sentiment, \u201c<\/i>I feel it, I feel it, I feel in my bones and I just don\u2019t think I can hold it anymore \/ The river is rising, flowing out of me and I\u2019m coming alive, I\u2019m coming alive \/ I\u2019m gonna dance and sing and move my feet because the river is rising \/ Flowing out of me \/ Gotta let the world know, take it to the street.\u201d Smith has found his footing as a worship leader. I\u2019m not saying he\u2019s not still a great pop singer, but God\u2019s pleasure is on him when he leads others in worship to God — that\u2019s clear from this disc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":29597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8074],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41193","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-michael-w-smith","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41193"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}