Review: Hail To The King (Hillsong London)

Hail To The King, the latest offering from Hillsong Church's U.K. offshoot, is not your average worship album. Call me crazy, but I think nowadays what we have come to expect from a worship release is a couple of charged-up rockers and numerous passionate ballads (don't forget 4 4 timing and the majority of tunes in the keys of G, E or C). Combining the Britpop influences of Snow Patrol, Coldplay and a young U2 with insightful yet clearly worshipful lyrics, the guys from London might just have stumbled onto something.

Track Listing:

1. Now
   
2. Hail To The King
   
3. I'm Not Ashamed
   
4. Rise
   
5. You Brought Me Home
   
6. You Are Here (The Same Power)
   
7. At Your Feet
   
8. I Receive
   
9. He Is Greater
   
10. Selah (Perfect Love)
    
11. Look To The Cross
    
12. All To Show
    
13. The Call
    

Don't get me wrong here: this CD is not one of those that come along once a decade and confound all expectations because of its musical foresight and creativity (See The Joshua Tree, Nevermind). Having said that, it is refreshing to listen to CD and not be taken aback by an insidiously catchy opening track. I must admit to some apprehension after my first listen through the disc; it didn't strike me as particularly special, if anything a tryhard attempt at imitating its mother church. However, once I listened to it a couple of times over, it became clear that these songs were crafted this way for a specific purpose. "Now", the opening mid tempo anthem, empowers young people to live their lives for Christ, backed by solid drum beats and auspicious lead guitar work. "I'm Not Ashamed", for me, is the pick of the fast songs. A dance worship track? You're looking right at it. That bass drum keeps kicking in your head along with the muscular riffs backing it. It follows on nicely to "Rise", a run-of-the-mill but nonetheless enjoyable 4 minutes of adrenalin-filled worship. "We will be the revolution!" is sung passionately, and despite the lack of a live audience (this is a studio record) the lead singer's vocals are sufficient to empower the statement. The rest of the album fluctuates between piano ballads ("You Brought Me Home") to swing-pop ("At Your Feet") to bare acoustic + strings ("Look To The Cross") to an upbeat closer ("The Call") Overall, a good contrast and transition between the fast and slow songs.

Musically, there is much more at work than your average guitar-bass-drums-keys band. As already mentioned, the use of strings is extremely tactful, such as in "Look To The Cross" and "He Is Greater". Guitars are crisp, the drum set is not overstated, and the keys add their flourishes to the string section. The bass could have been slightly louder (it is drowned out significantly in the wall of sound effect of some songs here) but the band generally keeps it tight. Vocals are passionate without being cheesy, and the boys hit those high notes nicely. "I Receive" contains the U2-esque effects mentioned earlier, keeping the listener guessing as to what the next song is going to sound like.

There is the question of suitability for congregational worship. Good as this album is, I find it hard to imagine the majority of these tracks being sung In churches around the world. Of the lot, "I'm Not Ashamed" catches on pretty quickly, and fits right in beside energetic anthems like Chris Tomlins's "Sing Sing Sing" and Hillsong's "Run". Other than that, only "He Is Greater" possesses proper suitability for a church congregation (This is very general and you might beg to differ).

This brings me to another aspect: musical innovativeness. The use of stylistic changes such as the aforementioned swing-pop track ("At Your Feet") allow for variation from the usual variation. I've mentioned the lack of suitability for mass congregational worship, but the flipside of the coin is that it allows a creative expression of worship. The sense I got from this album is that the entire group, musicians and singers alike, are passionate worshippers. As they say, it's the thought that counts.

Lyrically, there's not much you can say about a worship album. There are the usual revolutionary ra-ra anthems, the passionate gratefulness for salvation, and in short, nothing I can say that hasn't been said in a million reviews before this one. It's a worship album, so it does not deserve any flack for this.

Overall, the album does exactly what the Hillsong London crew must have had in mind: to create an alternative worship album that has its own unique sound. While there are still elements of contemporary worship, the influences of pop/alternative bands like U2 are more apparent here. Brits will love this one; it's worship with a tinge of Britpop (Need I say more?) For the rest of us, though, it's either a hit or a miss: You'll either love it or won't hit it off with it. I'm betting, though, that the former becomes more prevalent.

Rating: 4/5