Can’t Be Silent by Youth for the Nations is a live worship set of 12 songs geared for younger congregations. All 12 songs have catchy melodies and beautiful harmonies, which allow simple assimilation into worship sets of any service, especially a youth environment. Also, the songs transition well to other songs in the set. So if a worship leader decided to use more than one song from this set in a worship service, transitions between songs should be fairly easy. A few songs in the set favor the idea of mixing in hymns, a good quality to have for those services that utilize both hymns and modern worship songs.
Lyrically, the songs break into two main categories: corporate declaration and personal declaration. Corporate declaration songs speak to God as a group using “we” and “our.” There are five in this set; one opens up the set, two mix in the middle, and two close out the set. The rest of the set contains personal declaration songs, which reflect the heart of the believer to God; some would make great response time songs for many church services. Most songs are more than 5 minutes long, so they may need an arrangement to accommodate the uniqueness of other worship services. Since these songs were recorded live, the length of these songs does not surprise me. Worship musicians do not want to quench the spirit for the sake of a recording. So, praise God the recordings are long. That means the Spirit was powerful that day. :-)
The set feels like a big worship service. It starts off with a high-energy corporate declaration song, Be the Remedy. It’s the kind of song that encourages fellow believers to join together for the cause of Christ. The next two songs are high-energy personal declaration songs. Can’t Be Silent and Freely Yours express our freedom in Christ. The set continues with 7 slow/moderate worship songs, each with powerful moments that invite the listener to worship. Close your eyes, and you can easily imagine yourself worshiping with hundreds of other believers, especially with Hand of God, Absolute Surrender and I Love You Lord. Glorify Our King and Wonderful Love conclude the set with high-energy corporate declarations.
Overall, this is a great collection. A listener has over an hour of personal worship time, and worship leaders can easily pick any song from this collection for their local worship service. If you want a worship experience, Can’t Be Silent by Youth for the Nations delivers!
BIO:
Melanie Siewert is a Christ follower, wife to a wonderful man of God, and mother of two incredible boys. She has several years experience mentoring high school worship bands. Her passion for music accompanies her passion for making Christ known.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MelaSie
Blog: http://worshipvanguard.blogspot.com/
TWC: http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/forums/members/worshipvanguard.html
