Reviews

Recorded at the Student Life Camp in Texas, 'Prepare The Way' is the first live album from US Vineyard worship leader Jeremy Riddle. Opening with a spoken prayer, calling for God's rain to come, Jeremy starts this live album with a cover of the Delirious? classic 'Rain Down'. It opens gently, some twangs of electric guitar and atmospheric keys, before settling into its drum driven rhythm. For someone who is as used to hearing the original version of this song as I am, it's a little strange to hear someone else singing their own rendition of it. I wasn't all that taken with the "Do not shut the heavens" bridge, but aside from that, and to be fair to Jeremy, this is a solid performance.

'Prepare The Way Of The Lord' has a very 'Bono' feel to its vocals. Musically there are guitar riffs drifting in and out, a strong rhythm and an almost spontaneous feel to the song. 'How He Loves' has proved extremely popular for songwriter John Mark McMillan and Jeremy's cover on this recording is excellent. A quiet and worshipful ballad, centered on the theme of God's love for us. Lots of haunting music floating around like mist sweeping over the sea. The repeated chorus, "And oh how He loves us so", is beautiful.

'Stand In Awe' and 'The One, The Only' both demonstrate Jeremy's vocals at their best. He is clearly settled into his pace as he sings these song of worship. The third cover version on this album is Newsboys' 'He Reigns'. Jeremy begins it with another prayer, calling out to God, before he launches into this excellent song. It really is a great performance, both musically and vocally, and probably my highlight of the album with its perfectly executed guitar pieces and drums.

Another great track is 'Sweetly Broken', showing off Jeremy's songwriting abilities. The song reaches full flow as Jeremy sings "In awe of the cross I must confess, how wonderous Your redeeming love and how great is Your faithfulness".

'Full Attention' is a softly sung, gentle paced track, as Jeremy sings "May your face be dearer, may Your words be sweeter, than all the others". It's a beautiful song, prayerful and earnest. There's a growing trend among modern worship leaders to perform old hymns, and Jeremy does a fantastic job of 'It Is Well With My Soul'. This isn't new ground, with rockers Kutless having also covered it on their recent album 'It Is Well', but on this recording Jeremy does well to keep the reverence of the original hymn whilst still making it feel a relevant part of a modern worship album.

As live albums go, this one is good but perhaps missing that extra bit of magic to really make it stand out. A lot of the songs are more performance based than worship songs a crowd are likely to join in with, but as a live concert it's of top quality and thoroughly enjoyable.

Review by Dave Wood

LTTM Rating 3 out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
He Reigns
How He Loves
Sweetly Broken