worship

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Review of Hillsong United’s New Album: Empires

I would have to say that one of the most influential, relevant, and touching songs I have ever known is Hillsong United’s “Oceans” from their 2013 Zion album.

Review of Hillsong United's New Album: Empires

So when I was asked if I would like to receive an advance copy of the Australian worship group’s newest album, Empires, to review, it was an easy decision for me.

Empires, (which was released today on May 26, 2015), has been playing in my car for more than a solid week now. My process of reviewing it has been to refrain from paying attention to which individual track I was listening to; instead, only investigating the song after it really stood out to me as the album played as a whole.

I love this album.

It’s the kind of album that just flows in a cerebral experience, like ColdPlay’s Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends; as if there were not 12 individual songs, but instead a never-ending trip to a different, higher place. I would almost refer to it as an out of body experience.

Though I absolutely am obsessed with the the entire album, my favorite songs from Empires are the 6th and 7th tracks: “When I Lost My Heart to You (Hallelujah)”, a seemingly romantic song (which it is not, actually) that reminds me of the 1970’s Peter Gabriel era of the progressive rock group Genesis; and “Even When It Hurts (Praise Song)”, a track which might actually deem too honest and real for some members of an American audience.

Here’s an excerpt from the “When I Lost My Heart to You (Hallelujah)”:

Love laid its breath against my chest

My skin was thick but You breathed down all my walls

Love like the fire steals the cold

The ice wore thin as Your light tore through my door

You have my heart

As for “Even When It Hurts (Praise Song)”, I predict the honesty of the raw lyrics will distract some listeners from hearing the true meaning:

Even when the fight seems lost I’ll praise You

Even when it hurts like hell I’ll praise You

Even when it makes no sense to sing

Louder then I’ll sing Your praise

Here in America, we think nothing of the word “bloody” as an adjective, as we reference what we think as a thoughtless British adjective. However, I hear it serves as profanity in England.

I think it’s a similar case with the American use of “hell.” Unless someone is literally referring to hell in a Biblical manner, many Americans deem it as profanity; though that doesn’t quite seem the case overseas.

Either way, it’s safe to say that  “hurts like hell” isn’t something I’d let my 4 and a half year-old go around saying. After all, with this being Family Friendly Daddy Blog, part of what I do is screen for potential offensive content.

However, the Bible itself isn’t rated G or even PG; and neither is real life. And this album isn’t targeted for children. It’s for people who are seeking God, from a place of humility, desperation, and honesty.

Despite it being a “worship album,” it’s not “churchy”. It’s real.

So if you’re able to get past the culture shock of that phrase and try to understand the possible place in life that the songwriter Joel Houston was referring to, it can be a deep and meaningful way to illustrate from what depths of despair (hell) we can “choose joy” by deciding to praise God in the most unthinkable times.

I think that “Even When It Hurts (Praise Song)” may even contain the ability to unintentionally expose how easy it is to praise God in a church setting but not when you or someone who know is actually going through “hell on Earth”.

From divorce, to loss of a steady job, to experiencing a miscarriage, these are times when it’s not so practical to want to praise God.

As the song says, “when it hurts like hell… when it makes no sense, I’ll praise You.”

And that goes back to the track before it, “When I Lost My Heart to You (Hallelujah)”: “You have my heart.”

If Christ truly has our hearts, we will grasp on to straws to keep our faith in Him, if that’s what it takes; not just in the midst of a worship service at church… but when life is too real, when it seems the furthest from Heaven… “when it hurts like hell.”

That’s why this album is personally challenging for me. Beyond its well-produced, well-polished “spa rock” sound, it’s definitely the most brutally honest worship album I’ve ever been exposed to.

Thanks for reading my review today. I hope you found it helpful.

#EMPIRES  #FLYBY

Twitter: @HillsongUnited
 
Instagram: @HillsongUnited
 
 
Check them out on tour this summer: http://outcrytour.com/
 
Official website: http://smarturl.it/Empires
“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”
 
2 Comments Posted on Nostalgia, People, Spirituality, Storytelling, Uncategorized, Writing

The Curious Case of the Sports Agnostic: Some Guys Just Don’t Care About Sports and They’re Okay with That

Religion and sports are alike in that while they both consist of plenty of true followers (the sincerely devoted), they have their fair share of agnostics (the apathetic yet open-minded) and naturally, some atheists (the passionately opposed).

I was born into a family where sports, for all practical purposes, simply did not exist.  We never talked about them, never watched them, and really, never played them.  Of course there was my 2nd grade year playing baseball- turns out, I was pretty decent.  And my 5th and 6th grade years of basketball- not so decent. There was no lofty moral issue we had against sports; it’s just that virtually no one on either side of my family gave them any thought.  Except my Uncle Al.

My mom’s brother Al has always been a huge University of Alabama football team fan- for every year of my childhood, thanks to him, I never was without several Alabama t-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers, and whatever else kind of proper memorabilia I would need as a kid growing up in the state of Alabama, where deciding your allegiance to either the University of Alabama or Auburn was only second to whether or not you had accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior.

Even now, on the front license plate holder of my Honda Element, I have a University of Alabama fan plate.  Beyond knowing the coach’s name (Nick Saban; easy name to remember since it’s so similar to mine), I can’t tell you much about the team in recent years other than last year was good for them, as was 1992, and that Bear Bryant died in 1983, less than a month after he retired.  But I am an Alabama fan, as opposed to Auburn.  And even if I’m their worst fan ever, I’m still a fan.  But that is the extent of my affiliation with anything in the world of sports.

There’s no way around it: I’m weird for being a guy who doesn’t care about sports.  Guys are clearly supposed to care about sports.  Throughout my whole life, I’ve tried to convince myself that I’m missing out.  That all those Saturday afternoons and Monday nights when I’m spending my time and efforts doing anything else, I should be in front of the TV watching the game.  And that for all the games I miss, I should if nothing else, check the scores online to have something to talk about with other guys the next day.

That despite the fact that team players are traded every season, I myself should stay loyal to certain teams.  Despite the fact that sports stars are multimillionaires while school teachers often make less $40,000 a year, I should still worship sports figures.  And though the outcome of each game and each season doesn’t actually affect reality, it does in the minds of sports fans, so therefore it should matter in my mind.

My apathy towards sports has a lot to do with the fact in my mind, sports aren’t logical.  I do see how sports feed that human instinct to replicate war in some way when we ourselves aren’t actually fighting, similar to how most young wild animals “play fight” to prepare each other to eventually kill for food and defend themselves and/or family members.   But I can’t see how or why sports should be relevant or important in my life to the degree that they are for so many people.  Clearly though, I’m the odd man out here.  And clearly, it’s my view of sports, not sports themselves, that is irrelevant.

I am a sports agnostic, not a sports atheist.  In other words, I’m cool about it.  I just know that people have fun playing and watching sports, so I respect that.  I’m still invited to Super Bowl Parties- because despite not knowing the rules of football, I can still have a good time with people who are having a good time, no matter what they’re doing.  And who knows, maybe in the back of their minds, sports fans hope to convert me once I finally see what I’m missing.  Maybe one day I will finally “get it”.

I have been asked since my first year of high school why it is that I can name any celebrity’s height or ethnicity, what year any song or movie came out, or why I have such a vivid memories of trivial conversations and events that no one else would ever care to remember.  Here’s why:  Most men occupy a good amount of their passion and their memories to sports.  I don’t.  I have to fill it with something.  My passion is writing, and those odd details and stories are the magic stuff of what I write.  If I cared about sports, this website wouldn’t exist, and you would have spent the last couple of minutes doing something else, instead of reading this.  Like watching sports.