Kingsgate - Now More Than Ever (Live)
Artist:
Title:
Now More Than Ever (Live)
Type:
Album
Released:
06 Mar 2016
LTTM Rating:
Readers Rating:
Your Rating:
Review
I have to put my hands up: I like worshipping. I have to put my hands up: I've sung a few of these songs already. I have to put my hands up: I was in the crowd for this live recording as I'd never been to one before. I have to put my hands up: this collection of songs makes me put my hands up.
Starting with title track: this is about the big getting bigger. "For now we see in part, this is just the beginning" Rudy Cullen and Simon Benn confidently declare. And...
Read More I have to put my hands up: I like worshipping. I have to put my hands up: I've sung a few of these songs already. I have to put my hands up: I was in the crowd for this live recording as I'd never been to one before. I have to put my hands up: this collection of songs makes me put my hands up.
Starting with title track: this is about the big getting bigger. "For now we see in part, this is just the beginning" Rudy Cullen and Simon Benn confidently declare. And declare confidently they can as the lyric and the album theme is based on a prophetic word for the church of "now more than ever". Backed by a powerful arrangement the words have the potential to send shivers down spines and rattle dry bones. NMTE sets the scene for this sturdy collection of home-reared worship songs from Kingsgate's Peterborough HQ and its Cambridge and Leicester outstations. I was taught that home-written worship songs will reflect the house, and these songs do just that: they're about joy, love, transformed lives, devotion and glimpsing and grasping something coming on the horizon.
There's a wide song range, playing it relatively safe along familiar worship music parameters, and it's been written and presented by a talented bunch. Singers Annabel Sharman and Zoe McLean deliver some beautiful play-that-one-again moments in "No Greater Love" and "Saviour Healer". "Found", which bounds along like a One Direction song (other bands are available), is potentially detracting to the preached word as you'll find yourself humming it and your head still bobbing during the message. The phrase "I was blind, now I see, I love what you're showing me" are words that sound familiar but not written before: they seem so natural like finding a coat in the cupboard you didn't know you had but always felt you've worn it. "This life is Yours" grabs you by those same coat lapels, pushes you up against the wall and says "you're going to worship aren't you", and if played in a car could halve your motorway travel time. "Eyes" offers a refreshing take on some familiar verses, exploding into a firework drum climax of "nothing will take my eyes off of you".
Some of the songs take a while to get going, with the starts suggesting different musical destinations, but they're worth the wait - "All to you" for example - so some shorter lead-ins might keep every listener's interest. Other constructive feedback might include the crowd seemed a little out of the mix - perhaps they clapped out of tune - taking away a little of the live atmosphere, and a couple of times the arrangements and sounds lost their fluidity, and seemed a little forced. But hey, we're always learning and developing. This is Kingsgate's second album: the first was about God faithfulness, NMTE is looking ahead: songs of birthing, preparation, for the journey, and ultimately to be sung on arrival. The next one is going to tell even bigger stories from even bigger places. In the meantime, and now more than ever, this will keep you singing, and your hands up.
Review by Phil Aldis
LTTM Rating 4 Out of 5 Stars
Standout Tracks
This life is yours
Found
Eyes
