Hillsong United: All of the Above

[El Ben]

Well, those of you waiting for the next huge worship album from United might want to wait a little longer. All of the Above is probably not what you expected. It is neither live nor (in my opinion) a mainline worship album. You won't find many songs you can do here in your congregation (except maybe "The Difference" or "Hosanna" or one of the other handfuls of congregation-friendly tunes). Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this album. It's got a great supply of openers (or "walk-in" songs like they're called here) and some great slow tunes that are great for daily devotions.

In fact, I'd say that this CD is like some strange morphage of chilled-out prayer music and rocked-out driving music. Like I said before, don't expect to find your next worship hit on this album, but do give it a listen, especially if you're alread a fan of the United sound.

Now, on to the critical stuff. This CD sort of confirmed my worries that the Hillsong marketing giant is slowly losing touch with it's mainline fan base in producing great worship songs. Granted, this might not be a big issue seeing as how most people haven't heard any Hillsong albums past the "For All You've Done" era. Translation: it's not a big deal seeing as how most of their consumers are behind the times anyway, but for those die-hard fans like me, another semi-canned studio album was NOT what I wanted. I wanted another incredible live recording that captures all the passion and vibrance that is Hillsong United.

Part of me resented the fact that I felt as if I were getting a Brooke Fraser cover album (which borders on hyperbole), seeing as how she's featured on several of the songs and sings backup on many of the others. Don't get me wrong, I love Brooke, but I bought her album last month. Granted, if Hillsong London did a collaboration with the now-famous Natasha Beddingfield, I'd jump on that like white on rice, but Natasha is Natasha, and that's another story.

Ben's Summary:
3.75 stars out of five

Pros: Great tunes to drive to or to pray to, good musical arrangement, the classic United sound we've all come to know and love, and some killer guitar work.

Cons: Not live, not incredibly usable in many congregations, lack of distinction between songs (you can't tell a lot of times where one ends and the other begins), and the fact that most of the album seems to have been hijacked by Joel Houston and lacks the across-the-board multi-leader blend that we all know and love. Other than that, I love it.

[dtpuga]

El Ben,

I haven't really thoroughly listened to this album yet, but wanted to respond to a couple of your comments. I just felt like you held a couple of things against the album that weren't really its fault, haha.

#1 You said, "You won't find many songs you can do here in your congregation (except maybe "The Difference" or "Hosanna" or one of the other handfuls of congregation-friendly tunes)."

My first thought was, a handful? That is a pretty good pull from one album isn't it? How many non-compilation albums really are THAT usable? Maybe I am wrong there, I am no worship leader, but I have been lead a lot.

#2 You said, "Cons: Not live..."

Here, I just don't know how you can hold that against it. Its not like they promised a live album and gave you this. They have been promoting a 'different sound' and 'studio approach' all along. Well, as long as I have known about it coming out anyway.

Those were the two big things I kind of disagreed with you on. As for the usability issue, I don't know. Depends on how you want it to be used. I was talking to Fred about this album on Thursday when he commented on its edginess. My first thought was "GREAT, someone besides the David Crowder Band* can push the church for a little while." So I think its usability is huge within the Church as a whole.

It reminded me of my first listen to Illuminate. I loved it and thought, "dang, a lot of these songs are incredible but I probably will never hear them in church." So again, I guess I agree with you there, I just don't think its a bad thing. We got some good music our of Australia again and its not the same as the last thing they did either.

As for the "songs flowing together." That is a good thing to me too. I am an album listener not a track listener usually. I love when an album tracks like that from one song to the next.

All that being said, I give it an enthusiastic 37 thumbs up. I'm just not telling you how many possible thumbs there are. The rest of you will have to get a listen for yourself in order to form your opinions. (And your thumb rating.)

Travis

[SaintLewis]

I'm with Ben on this - INCREDIBLE CD, yes - but our Youth Group has a hard time singing along when we do "Salvation is Here", and there's nothing on this c.d. even half as catchy or 'singable' as that. I love it, but I love it in the same way that I do most Radiohead, Elbow, or Sigor Ros c.d.'s - and I don't often sing along with those. I take them in and relish in them.

As far as 'usability': Passion (I consider it a 'bad' Passion c.d. if I only glean 4 songs from it for corporate use) , Chris Tomlin (ditto), and for me, even Eoghan Heaslip - I usually hope to get 3 to 4 usable congregational songs from most worship cd's if I'm going to bother purchasing it. Not always, but usually.

I personally wish Hillsong United would try to return to stuff like "God is Great" - fist pumping, high-energy, catchiness, AND rocking, progressive tunage!

[El Ben]

Great comments, Travis. You made some really good points, but I just wanted to clarify what I meant on some things:




#1 You said, "You won't find many songs you can do here in your congregation (except maybe "The Difference" or "Hosanna" or one of the other handfuls of congregation-friendly tunes)."

My first thought was, a handful? That is a pretty good pull from one album isn't it? How many non-compilation albums really are THAT usable? Maybe I am wrong there, I am no worship leader, but I have been lead a lot.


I think Shannon hit the nail on the head here when he made the comment about usability. I consider a worship album "GOOD" on two seperate planes:

1.) Does it evoke worship in me?
2.) Can I use it to evoke worship in others?

Obviouslly, as a worship leader both things are important, but I tend to lean on the second when it comes to tipping the scales as to whether it's a "good" or "ok" album. Every single United album has (for me) produced no less than five or six viable, flexible songs for use in a congregational setting (be it in a youth group or in a corporate gathering). The same was true of most of the regular Hillsong albums until the last one (God He Reigns) when the usability factor started dropping off.

I also have to consider the fact that I have a healthy amount of older people in my congregation, and though they have been GREAT in responding to some of the "younger" music that I've thrown out there, I don't want to exhaust them with music to which they can't follow the words.


You said, "Cons: Not live..."

Here, I just don't know how you can hold that against it. Its not like they promised a live album and gave you this. They have been promoting a 'different sound' and 'studio approach' all along. Well, as long as I have known about it coming out anyway.

You're right, they never promised a live album, but after five live albums that all ROCKED FACE and produced several HUGE worship hits, it's a little strange to be hearing an almost-all studio (one song is live) album that (were it not for the classic United sound) could be an entirely different kettle of fish altogether, as in a whole different band AND approach. Besides, part of the appeal of the live album to me as a worship leader is that you kind of get the dynamic for how their worship flows. Every album has been refreshing and different, but I'm wondering if the studio move (which I completely don't mind [in theory]) would not have been better moved into slowly. Maybe do another live album with a couple of studio tracks (like they used to do on the older albums, which I loved).


Those were the two big things I kind of disagreed with you on. As for the usability issue, I don't know. Depends on how you want it to be used. I was talking to Fred about this album on Thursday when he commented on its edginess. My first thought was "GREAT, someone besides the David Crowder Band* can push the church for a little while." So I think its usability is huge within the Church as a whole.

United was edgy before going studio. Part of the big appeal was that I got experience the edginess along with the crowd (which may or may not have been dubbed over, but that's neither here nor there). My point is that you, as an artist, don't have to completely re-invent the experience of your album to be edgy or different. United had the corner on the market when it came to edgy, but they pulled it off. I think that they won't have such a favorable response to this particular endeavor.


It reminded me of my first listen to Illuminate. I loved it and thought, "dang, a lot of these songs are incredible but I probably will never hear them in church." So again, I guess I agree with you there, I just don't think its a bad thing. We got some good music our of Australia again and its not the same as the last thing they did either.

Which is great for young adult ministries like Elevate where we LOVE to do DCB stuff. :) Also, I'll agree with you here. The fact is that there are a lot of things I'd like to hear in church, but they're too "edgy" or "raw" for what I have to do. That's just working with people, right?


As for the "songs flowing together." That is a good thing to me too. I am an album listener not a track listener usually. I love when an album tracks like that from one song to the next.

Sorry, I didn't mean that the way it comes across. I agree with you completely. I'm an abum-listener, too, and I love when songs flow. What I don't like is when they all kind of sound the same. When songs that sound the same flow together, it's like listening to one big song that's an hour long. That's what I loved about the "Selah" and "interlude" parts of the last United album, they provided that necessary musical blurb in-between songs that provided moments for reflection before going into a distinct, yet altogether different next song.

[dtpuga]

Yeah, I hear you Ben.

I kinda wanted to present the other side of the coin there. A non-leader' spersepective on the album. I do understand what you meant there now.

Travis

[El Ben]

Great perspective, too. You made some really good points. I think we can both agree that we actually like the album a whole lot.

[SaintLewis]

Don't kid yourself, Travis - Ben's only being nice.
Your opinion doesn't count because you're not a musician!

:-D

Okay, so how many coffee's can I have in a day before I'm legally 'Psychotic' - um...and no, Trav, you can't answer that!

p.s. - that coin you were talking about: can I have it?

*any animals harmed in the writing of this email were mean and they deserved everything they got!

[russhutto]

***kicks a small woodland creature, after following Shannon's lead.

[chipshot0701]

Okay you guys and girls,

How about this, have any of you used the Los Lonely Boys song "Heaven"?
We're thinking about using it as bumper music with instrumental only with no vocals.

[SaintLewis]

Yep - done both. It's a GREAT tune. We used it for walk in 2 weeks in a row - once was instrumental, and one was full-band with vocal...lot's of fun!

[chipshot0701]

How was it received by the congregation?
Just curious if its an appropriate song to use.
Did you sing the spanish bridge?

Mike

[WorshipCity]

I joined the United Camp late along the movement. I resisted for a long time but United We Stand broke me. Then I went back and got Look To You.

I noticed the same predicament: INCREDIBLE tunes yet how singable are some of them? I mean they are a 'Youth Band' but still I see my youth have a particularly hard time cramming in all those words to some of those songs and my Middle Schoolers aren't letting politics decide anything :)

All in all, INSANE CD, with songs to definitely pull for your youth and the ones you can't, you can use for openers and such. I hadn't heard of Brooke before and so it was a pleasant introduction!

[Klampert]

I completely agree with the review...

here is my song by song review of this CD

http://cecworship.wordpress.com/2007/05/25/hillsong-united-all-of-the-above-review/

[stephen_can_man]

I have used "Lead me to the Cross" in our services as a performance style piece and it was so popular I am bringing it back as a regular worship song. But, it will be harder to use some of these songs. I agree with everyone else though, the album rocks, its just hard to get regular songs from it.

[Klampert]

We use lead me to the cross before communion...its perfect

[SaintLewis]

For any who are interested, I put a few of the songs off the new Hillsong United c.d. on a mix for our youth musicians/sound folks to choose new material from - the HU song that has by far gotten the most votes (other's have gotten more votes, but not songs by Hillsong United) is "Lead me to the Cross"...
sounds like this one might be a good pick for corporate worship, especially in youth environments. Just a thought.

[WorshipCity]

For any who are interested, I put a few of the songs off the new Hillsong United c.d. on a mix for our youth musicians/sound folks to choose new material from - the HU song that has by far gotten the most votes (other's have gotten more votes, but not songs by Hillsong United) is "Lead me to the Cross"...
sounds like this one might be a good pick for corporate worship, especially in youth environments. Just a thought.

Hmm I'm actually surprised by that. Not that it isn't a great song, or even one of my favorites but not my 1st obvious pick for youth environments. It was a tie between that one and Hosanna to introduce to the adult congregation and Hosanna won out. Break Free was going to be my 1st intro to the Youth.

[SaintLewis]

I was surprised, too, honestly - I thought they'd go for "Break Free"

After taking a survey of the youth music team, and the adult volunteers and staff related to our youth musicians (sound men, etc), compiling a cd from their suggestions and from some of the better new tracks I'd heard - I then distributed that c.d. to our youth musicians and vocalists to vote on their top 5 for worship, and to suggest special music songs. Strangely, even the youth that ABSOLUTELY LOVE "Break Free" didn't include it in their top 5 - they suggested it'd work better as 'walk-in music' or a special...I'm still waiting to hear back from 3 people, but as it stands right now our new songs this fall will be:
1. Saving Grace (Jones) - Vineyard
2. Lead me to the Cross - Hillsong United
3. All because of Jesus - Steve Fee (one of the worship leaders @ Northpoint)
4. Fire fall Down - Hillsong United (though this is an older song, one of the youth requested it)
5. Let Your Kingdom Come - Sovereign Grace Ministries

Of course, the bottom 3 could easily change, depending on the final 3 voters results - "Saving Grace" & "Lead me to the Cross", however, recieved so many votes already that they're pretty much 'givens'.