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| Friday, November 27, 2009
Music > Revival by Ignite Writer: Dawn Chua-Fung In some ways, Revival is a boring album to listen to. Technically, it's overdone, reeks too much of Parachute Band without restraint, there seems always to be an electric guitar somewhere. For a 13-track album, it cost me a lot of self-control not to walk away while waiting for the next song, hoping that it would be very different from the last. This is because one's ears can only take so much of the frequency of doubling vocals, harmonising and electric guitar fill-ins. The sleeve says about Revival, "A new sound is coming forth from the young people". To me, the "new sound" is really this: unimaginative lyrics, old hat imageries, and Aussie/Kiwi worship music that we already have in all charismatic churches. That is why the last track, a Chinese one, turns out to be the one gem that soothes my ears. Wo Xiang Fei (I Want To Fly) by Sarah Goh and Andrew Yeo is very touching. The lyrics are adequately beautiful, and brings out that I-want-to-sing-it-to-the-Lord-on-my-knees feeling. More kudos to the singer who brings out the sweetness of the words. To give Revival a fairer hearing, I looped the album and listened to it for a second time, participating it as a worshipper. Lo and behold, my disdain faded into the background and the sounds that I first thought unbearable were not even noticeable. This is because worship albums are not created for easy listening, but for worship. There is a function for worship albums, and woe to the listener with unbelief. A worship album like Revival will make sense in the context of many youths at a conference in live worship. Which is what Revival seems to convey, because Ignite is a relational network of youth pastors and congregations. The music, albeit dull to certain connoisseurs, is fresh in another context. The point is that this freshness retains only as much as the worshipper indulges. Alpha and Omega from Revival Christian worship lyrics are almost always recycled because congregationally; we want to sing something to Christ that we all know to be true, and this is usually possible only if we sing them straight from the Word of God. I do have a problem at times with the rhyming motifs of grace/save/place, or mainstream fare of "All of my days" or "I live for You" because these types of expressions tend to be emotional displays of love to God, rather than the doctrinal, revelational "We bow our knees...Lamb of God... Holy One". Of course, in the scope of today's worship understanding, we worship God in spirit and in truth -- emotional, mental, physical displays of adoration are important when anchored in the gospel. Lebbeus Lau's Alpha And Omega, Rachael Gunasilan's You Are Here and the aforementioned Chinese songs are memorable, and the anchor in the album is obviously co-producer Andrew Yeo with five tracks, all competently done. You can tell that the team has worked hard for the album, and I would not want readers to see this as a scathing review to thwart their efforts. If you search online, you can see that these guys have their own testimonies to impact their youths and through the album, Revival is a sort of "coming out" into a calling for a lot of them. Check out the youtube links for the Revival album songs as well -- the photos of youths enjoying worship is a magnetic draw to anyone who thinks twice about Ignite's music. As a networker, I love Revival's contribution to Singapore's much-needed landscape of original songs, especially from young people. As a worshipper, I find Revival sweet enough to dance to with my daughter. As a listener, the technicalities of music arrangement and creativity has a long way to go, and if Ignite can be true and simple with their future albums, they would find a home in many Christian hit lists.
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