One of the most prolific writers of worship songs for the church today is back with a brand new studio recording, Beautiful News. Releases from Matt are always much anticipated due to his proven track record for writing songs that bless the church and are sung in services all over the world.
The title track and theme for the album is Beautiful News, speaking of course of the Gospel and letting people know the powerful, beautiful news, rejoicing in the fact that “something so powerful should shake the whole wide world.” It's a song of telling others, it's a song of thanks for the grace and the salvation and having the kind of infectious joy in what He has done that we can't stop ourselves but from shouting and telling the world. A great message to start the CD with. For me the main stand out tracks though have to be Blessing and Take it to the Streets. Blessing is a poppy, infectious chorus sticking to the theme of thanking God for the blessing that was His Son it rings out with “You brought a blessing, and the blessing is You.” It's catchy and irrepressibly joyful, Matt Redman at the very top of his game. Meanwhile Take it to the Streets is like stepping into the delorian and going back in time to cutting edge era delirious, co-written with Martin Smith it's loud and upbeat, and makes you wonder whatever happened to the days when Delirious were pumping out worship songs like this at a rate of knots. Also featuring are two songs that have featured on the live recordings of Passion events, You never let go, Matt's worshipful response to the terrible events of 7/7, expressing the amazing safety found in the arms of God and also All Over The World, already popular in churches. One song that baffled me was Thank you for healing me, starting a song with “The disease of my soul was spreading, eating me up on the inside” is just a bit too emo for my liking, the message of the song is great, but a first line like that threw me off for the whole track.
On the whole this is Matt's best album since Intimacy, and sees him in good form throughout, there are several songs which I have no doubt will become extremely popular. With some catchy hooks and punchy songs as well as the more intimate worship that Matt does so well, this will be a welcome addition to any worshippers music collection.
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