Review

It was a couple of years ago that I found myself in El Cajon, California at a worship conference with the likes of Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, David Crowder and Matt Redman. During that conference we were introduced to a protégé of Matt Redman's; a young man that had grown up in the Soul Survivor church under Matt's tutelage. The young man was Tim Hughes. He came to the platform to lead a couple of songs and while you could tell that he wasn't terribly comfortable with the new surroundings he found himself in, he pushed through. At the end of his set he introduced a new song that he had written, "Light Of The World" which has since been re-titled as "Here I Am To Worship." I will never forget what happened that night. Tim left the platform and the anthem of worship continued on as nearly 3000 worship leaders and team members continued to sing the song for about 10 more minutes after he left. Matt and Tim's senior pastor Mike Pilavachi had the sensitivity to not interrupt that time and it was absolutely wonderful. For most of us, that song has become an absolute standard in our worship repertoire and no matter where you go you here that song.

I must say that Tim's new CD, "When Silence Falls" is destined to bring us more classics for worship. I spent my entire vacation spinning his new disc and my entire family gives it a huge thumb's up. The CD is very beautifully produced with full, rich texture weaved throughout the arrangements. Yet, at the same time the heart of a true worshipper comes sailing through. The honesty with which Tim approaches the Lord is evident in every song. The opening song, "Beautiful One" is a fresh look at the loveliness of God and is a love song that is sung directly to Him. This song has a melody that is truly as beautiful as the emotions being expressed through the lyrics. It "sings" so easily and is absolutely memorable and you will find yourself remembering it and singing it for days. The next two songs on the CD are very strong as well. The song "You" speaks about the immeasurableness of God and proclaims that there is no one else like our God. This tune employs changes in dynamics a number of times throughout the song which really helps it sing as a conversation with God. "Consuming Fire" is a meditative cry for God's presence and very breath in our midst. It is a song that asks God to fan the flame of passion in our hearts toward Him and for Him to have His way in us. This song would work so well as a transition song into a deeper place of worship in a weekend set.

One of the most interesting songs on this disc is "Whole World In His Hands". The title takes my mind to reminiscing on the very campy "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands" that I sang in church as a kid. This song shares nothing with the old version other than the title idea. It is actually a really strong song about trusting in the Lord. I always find myself trying to find songs about trusting in God, as that topic comes up so many times in sermons throughout the year. This song will work so well for that as it is another memorable song with the incredibly catchy hook. My favorite song on this project is "Beauty Of Your Peace". It is a song driven by an acoustic piano and is incredibly well written. It absolutely takes you to a place of peace as you sing, "Lead us to the place where you'll restore our souls, And all our earthly strivings come to cease, take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess, The beauty of Your peace, The beauty of Your peace". As so many of our congregation tells us how stressed out and busy and overworked they are, I think that this song could very well become a really powerful song of ministry to our people. The last song that I want to highlight is the light-hearted, "Joy Is In This Place". As I said, I took this CD with our family on vacation and the song that my three children, ages ten to thirteen, kept asking me to replay, was this one. It is just a really up-tempo, jumpy, bouncy song of celebration. It is not lyrically deep, other than it incorporates the refrain from Amazing Grace, but it is a song of joy. Typically songs like this work much better when they are very simple so, I think it can be a fun song to put into your worship set at then end when thankfulness and celebration are building.

As you can tell, I would highly recommend this CD and didn't really find any weaknesses in it. Enjoy!

Review by Bryan Bloom