Review

"Unfailing Love" from Vineyard UK features worship leader Nigel Briggs & Trent, the worship team from Trent Vineyard in Nottingham, UK. This CD, their follow up to 2003's "Hold On", serves up some fresh new worship music. When Most People think of Vineyard UK they think of landmark albums like "Come Now Is the Time" or "Hungry." Mention Vineyard UK to someone, and worship leaders like Brian Doerksen, Kathryn Scott and Brenton Brown might come to their mind. But as of late, Vineyard UK has turned their attention toward leaders and songwriters that are in more of a rock vein than their predecessors. Guys like Sam Lane ("Beautiful", "All From You") and Nigel Briggs are energetic and communicate musically through modern rock that reflects the current music scene in the UK.

When you talk about Vineyard UK it's hard not to bring up Brian Doerksen because he made such a deep impact on the worship songwriting style of that music community. To me Brian's masterful writing produces songs that are concise, focused, and steer away from cliché's. Nigel Briggs was part of those amazing early days with Brian and when you listen to "Unfailing Love" it shows. I don't want to mislead you and make it seem like this CD sounds like a Doersken CD, because it really doesn't. But Nigel Briggs & Trent have followed in that tradition by penning lyrically simple songs that run deep with meaning.

Musically, Nigel Briggs & Trent speak the language of brit-pop and dance rock. The songs on "Unfailing Love" are aggressive, with passionate grooves that are reminiscent of very early U2. They slip in and out between major and minor keys. The songs ebb and flow from fast four-to-the-floor dance rock tunes to restrained ballads that beg to be turned loose but are never granted freedom. In short "Unfailing Love" is a very exciting, flavorful worship CD filled with tension and release.

I won't pretend that this CD is for everyone, especially in terms of being a resource. The songs are done in a style that some worship teams could have a hard time adapting to their style. I would think that as a resource, this CD would be perfect for those worship teams that minister to a twenty or thirty-something crowd. (By the way, the CD does come with printable chord charts and a cool video that you can watch on your computer.) Aside from the resource aspect you can be sure that as a listening CD, "Unfailing Love" will lift you with it's high-energy music and quite possibly give you some pretty cool personal worship moments.

Review by Jeremy Dunn