NEW MUSIC
NOW HEAR THIS | Gerod Bass
ELEVATION WORSHIP LION approach with the majority of the songs here .
JUSTIN TWEITO Song Spotlight : “ The Cup Was Not Removed ”
1 . |
Bye Bye Babylon |
2 . |
What I See |
3 . |
Same God |
4 . |
LION |
5 . |
This is the Kingdom |
6 . |
This is the Kingdom [ Flow ] |
7 . |
Dancing |
8 . |
Water Is Wild |
9 . |
Welcome Resurrection |
10 . Forever YHWH |
11 . |
No One |
12 . You Really Are |
13 . Why |
14 . The One You Love |
15 . Might Get Loud |
Elevation Worship ’ s newest release , LION , |
represents its title well with this huge new album |
that boasts 15 new tracks of vertically aimed |
music for the church . With this newest release , |
the North Carolina collective have peeled back |
their production , writing and arrangements |
in an attempt to answer God ’ s call to write |
new worship music in a way that will help the |
church to explore new ways to praise the Lord |
creatively . |
The most obvious change is that they have |
boldly |
moved |
from |
the |
over-produced |
electronic rock vibe of their last few releases to |
more of a folky , mood bending rootsy musical |
Take the opening song ; “ Bye Bye Babylon ”. The mere fact that Elevation kicked off an album with something that didn ’ t begin with a raucous crowd over a high-energy opener , is in and of itself a welcome sight . The song itself is a bassy acoustic call to believers to remember that they are not of this world and that a better one waits for us in heaven .
Pat Barret ’ s “ This is the Kingdom ” finds its roots buried in the Beatitudes from Matthew 5 as his soft tenor with piano and acoustic backing remind us that Christ ’ s kingdom comes through us as we share the love and mercy of Jesus to those in our midst .
The signature song on the album is the title track which begins with a piano ballad as Brandon Lake confidently declares the majesty and power of our God as the lamb who roars for us with resurrection power . This song is definitely out-of-the-box worship both in chord progression and song structure . The call and response on the chorus ’ with leader and congregation yelling “ Roar ” back and forth creates a really powerful expression of worship .
Elevation seemed to write this album with reckless abandon without worry about record companies or what is the popular sound right now or whether or not churches will adopt these songs into their weekend sets . LION is a deep expression of personal , honest and creative worship and every song writer who writes worship music should stop and take notice of what they have done . I applaud them for taking all kinds of risks for the sake of the Gospel with this album .
Justin Tweito has always had a passion for writing and performing scripturally rich worship . He currently serves as the Worship Pastor at The Church at Nolensville which is about 22 miles south of Nashville . His latest single , “ The Cup Was Not Removed ” was featured on Shane and Shane ’ s Worship Initiative album as well as a Worship Together collection earlier this year .
I always appreciate worship writers who pull lines directly from scripture and build songs around them . Here , the title and direct theme of the song deals with Jesus ’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane when He desperately asks the Father to take this cup from him . Of course , we all know ( as did Jesus most likely ) that he needed to drink from the cup of suffering that His Father gave Him and ultimately pay the price for the sins of humanity by hanging on a wooden cross . He did so knowing full well that the only way to bridge the gap between us and God was to become that sacrifice for us .
The song begins with a powerful piano motif , loops and a strong drum beats with the intro before bringing back the instrumentation for verse one . Tweito lays out the songs theme right away as he confidently declares ; “ The cup was not removed , He drank it all ”. In this first line , we get the whole story of the redemptive power of Jesus and His obedience to the Father . The next line of verse one is beautiful and convicting ; “ See Him hanging there where I belong ”. Not only is this a genius rhyming line but it also reminds us of how Christ took our place between those two thieves . The next two lines of the verse put us