I haven’t done an album review in quite a while, and it’s not because I haven’t received any from Integrity music, and its not because the ones I’ve gotten haven’t been worth review.. When your Internet is provided through a tin can and a string, you try to stay off the Internet unless necessary! I listened to an album last night that I had to share with you, but it’s not one that comes from Integrity music.. It’s one I just happened on when I was making a playlist on Spotify (don’t ask.. Still have no idea how I was able to get back on Spotify)
The album, as pictured above, is called “Love Divine The Songs of Charles Wesley for Today’s Generation“. It is a compilation album where popular “modern” artists such as Brenton Brown, Tim Hughes, Kim Walker and Jason Roy (to name a few) have taken some of the popular hymns of Charles Wesley and arranged them in a way to make them more modern, and more appealing to todays generation.
I wrote a couple years ago about a conversation I had with an elder at my church, about how old hymns, because of the amazing content and scriptural relevance, they seem to stand the test of time. When you go into a seniors home, you can sit next to a person suffering from Alzheimer’s who may not know their child’s name, but yet they will still know the words to a song like “And Can It Be” or “The Old Rugged Cross”.. And we were discussing what songs were being written today that would “stand the test of time”. Leave a comment with your suggestion of songs, because I could only think of a few that might.
The thing I like about this album is I’ve heard some different modernized versions of hymns, but they seem to take the reverence out of the hymn. I’ve heard many older folks say “I just didn’t like that, it sounded too much like a rock concert, you ruined my favorite hymn” and while musical style is a personal preference, I’m not into ruining a song for a person. This artists on this album, in my opinion, have done a great job of keeping that “old time reverence” that Charles Wesley had in his original hymns, but at the same time, did just enough to the songs to make them unique and their own.
The song that stood out the most for me was “And Can It Be” partially because it is one of my favorite hymns, but also because it happened to be the song I was looking for at the time. The version that Mac Powell did of this song is so amazing, that I plan on bringing it to my team in the next couple weeks to try. I know that it will be different for our congregation, who LOVE this hymn, but I also know that he kept the reverence of the hymn, and my congregation will appreciate that, and will still enjoy the hymn.
Striving to live like Jesus.
