David Crowder is a Texas based worship leader who has worked extensively with Passion and is now releasing his first commercial release on Sixsteps records. David is Music and Arts Pastor at University Baptist Church in Waco and has gathered a large grass-roots fan base.
The album entitled "Can you hear us?" features David and his band, which includes a DJ and Electronic violinist, helping to make for a modern, raw and eclectic sound. "Our Love is Loud" stands out immediately as a modern praise anthem, with its passionate, heart felt lyrics crying out love for God, it is exciting and modern with pulsating rhythms, it's effectiveness is added to by the use of the DJ decks during the song, showing how people can use many talents in many ways to glorify God. "My Hope" is all about giving your all to Jesus Christ and trusting in him, it's verses are poetic and have the backing of a violin, but then the chorus erupts and comes to life with the whole band. "Wonderful King" is a beautiful worship experience, with mellow acoustic music and thoughtful lyrics telling of true love for our King, it is an altogether memorable song. "All creature of our God and King" is a slow hymn, with powerful instrumental backing, but I don't think it will appeal to young people as it seems very outdated and a strange addition to the album, following a recent trend of featuring hymns on youth albums. "God of Creation" is a celebration of the many wonders of God's creation, it is a lovely song that conjures up images of the most beautiful things God has created and the many things he has done for us. I was interested to see that David has chosen to cover the memorable delirious worship song, Obsession. I found this an interesting choice, as it is not often that someone else attempts this song. The original was a very long song with strong vocals helping to make it a very emotional worship experience, however this cover version fails to match the intensity of the original and is I would say a very average performance. David also covers the popular Matt Redman song "Undignified" this is pulled off with much greater effect, it is loud and excited, stirring, lively and great fun. The track sees the band really let go and enjoy themselves and it shows through on the recording.
In conclusion the album contains some very beautiful poetic lyrics set to strong modern music and some seriously good songs, but then it is let down by "Obsession" and "All creatures of our God and King". It is full of intelligent and passionate lyrics, which will make it a good listen for fans of modern worship. Although it is not all that it could have been this album is still an impressive addition to the Sixsteps records portfolio.
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