Revive Worship “King of Glory (The Psalms)” Album Review

Prime Cuts:  Great God (Psalm 150), King of Glory (Psalm 24), Everlasting (Psalm 90)

More important than style, hooks, riffs, and sound is the content of worship songs.  Too often worship music gets flushed down as sanctified love songs where God is just the interchangeable "he."  And our relationship with God is often portrayed as narcissistic or humanistic.  Somehow transcendence is sacrificed on the altar of relevancy.  This isn't the case with Revive Worship.  For each of their two albums, they have had built their songs around Scripture.  Moreover, they have also tied the development of their song's lyrics to the careful exposition of Scripture conveyed by their lead pastor in church.  Thus, for their first album "Made Alive" the songs are loosely based upon the book of Ephesians as well as the sermons delivered by their church's pastor.  Now, for their sophomore album the tie between the album's content and Scripture gets tightened even more.  The lyrics of each of these 10 tracks on "King of Glory" can be traced through a Psalm in Holy Writ.
 
Fronted by a team of seven members, Revive Worship is the worship team of First Baptist Church in Loganville, GA.  Teaming up again with DREAM Worship Records (Cindy Cruse Ratcliff, New Hope Oahu), "King of Glory" takes the words of the Psalmist and brushes them with a contemporary tune so that they can once again become the musical vernacular of the church as it once was.  Sonically, the team has expressed growth in the honing of their sound.  Relative to their debut, there is more confidence in their singing and instrumentally, the team has given the entire album a more jaunty and organic sound.  Most exemplary is "Sweeter (Psalm 19)."  The muted drum loop and the gritty guitar punches give "Sweeter" a homey and rustic feel especially with lines like "He writes his story with the stars in the sky/With every sunrise brings hope into the darkest night."

Current single "You Are God (Psalm 40)" is introduced by some thrumming brittle loops before exploding into a big chorus with hooks so recognizable that it makes us want to sing along in no time.  Hannah Bruner gives the guys a recess as she takes puts her Taya Smith-esque vocals to work on one of the album's most glorious ballads "King of Glory (Psalm 24)."  Meditatively thoughtful executed by a voice that inspires worship, "King of Glory" is indeed this album's lodestar.  Though only clocking at 46 seconds, the team sounds really great in a rendition of the "Doxology" which eases into "Great God (Psalm 150)," a simple but yet affective call to praise God.  "Everlasting (Psalm 90)" again finds Bruner's crystalline vocals at the fore on what is a mellow acoustic singer-songwriter type piece.   

Yet not all is perfect; there are a couple of pieces here and there that drift by.  Not because they are paltry by any means, they are just not as arresting and it takes some more time to get into them.  Nevertheless, just like their previous album, this album doesn't disappoint.  And if you get acquainted with these songs, you not only get to worship God, but you also learn at least 10 Psalms by hard.  Can you get a better deal than that? 

 

 

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