There seems to be a very real danger in making overly earnest worship music. Jesus Culture, the band connected with the series of revival-like conferences, could certainly fall into that category along with Hillsong, the Parachute Band, the Desperation Band, and others.
I’m especially thinking of the overly earnest bio for one of Jesus Culture’s lead singers, Kim Walker-Smith, where it states that she “lives to worship Him with every ounce of her being.” Really, Kim? Every ounce? What about the sinful side of you that you struggle with everyday? I can tell you love to worship the Lord by the way you sing and lead worship. You don’t need to overstate the case. In fact, I wish you wouldn’t, because there’s something authentic in the music that I want to commend to others but statements like “every ounce of her being” make it seem like you’re somehow “other” than the rest of us lame people who still struggle with our sin.
With that out of the way, and skipping over my wondering at why Walker-Smith inserts a small laugh into so much of her singing, let me say that I’m drawn to Jesus Culture’s Come Away much more than I’m pushed away. Recorded before a live audience in Redding, California, Come Away brings you into the worship experience with a stellar band that envelopes you in sound, crunches up things enough with rock energy, and yet still delivers the requisite sing-along style necessary in worship music. More than that, they also can jam and vamp somewhat lending a freer feel to the songs rather than just the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus format.
Listening again to the songs and trying to decipher what draws me in, I think it is the guitars and drums. They’re not toned down even on the ballad sections. They’re live and punchy, lifting even these worship songs above the norm.
The disc also comes with a DVD (unavailable for review).
