Review

As I sit down to write this review I find myself at the 2004 Worship Conference at Saddleback Church out in southern California. With almost 4000 worship leaders and team members from all over the world gathered here to learn more about worshipping God it becomes very clear that worship is truly "bigger" than any of us know just as our God becomes "larger" the more we discover about Him. So, it should come as no surprise then that there is still more dynamic music coming from halfway around the world from where I live; Australia to be exact. Many of us who lead worship have been enjoying the wonderful music that has come from the Hillsong's church but now there is some more great music coming out of Australia from a band called Planetshakers. I must admit that I had not heard of this band prior to reviewing this CD, but upon checking out their website at www.planteshakers.com, I discovered that they have released a number of CD's.

Their newest offering is entitled, "Open Up The Gates". This CD kicks off with a bang with a driving rock title track. This is a corporate call to all to come and worship the King taken off the pages of the Bible in Psalm 24. One of the driving forces behind Planetshakers, Henry Seeley, both penned this song and sings the lead vocal. This is a really good song and will work extremely well as an opening song in your set as a call to worship. One of the other wonderful aspects of this tune is that it is a "vertical" song, meaning that it is sung to God. It is a corporate song with "we" and "us" in the lyrics which along with the infections groove makes it a must to use in your congregational setting. There are many really strong songs on this disc another one that I was particularly fond of is the fourth track, "It's All About Jesus." This is a song about Jesus being the centrality of our worship. The poetic lyrics couched in a flowing, lilting melody really set it apart as a wonderful song. At the point of writing this we are quite a ways away from Easter, but this song would work extremely well for an Easter service.

The theme of this disc, as the title indicates is one of opening ourselves up to God. Many of the songs are songs of the discovery of God's grace, power and mercy in our lives. Many of these songs are very intimate songs sung "to" God, The band finds a way lyrically to express some of the most profound truths about God in a simple lyric and melody that allows the listener to really connect with God through the songs. This is a studio recorded CD but it has a lot of passion associated with it as you listen. The arrangements are a lot like much of the music that you would expect to find on CD from the "Passion" group. All of the instrumentation is excellent and the vocal arrangements are very sweet. All in all there are some very usable songs on this disc and I think that you will find the approach by Planetshakers a fresh one indeed. As is the case with many worship CD's these days, there are also downloadable charts and lyrics on the disc itself as well as an accompanying songbook that you can purchase as well!

Review by Bryan Bloom