Sovereign Grace Music “Risen”

I recently (2 days ago) purchased the new Sovereign Grace Music album, “Risen” and thought I would take a run at writing a review.  I am not a musician but I do love music — that makes me an expert, right?  Well, I listened through the album a few times and it has really begun to grow on me (which is a good sign).  I’m going to listen through the album and write my thoughts/ratings for each song as I listen.  One qualifier: I have no desire to be critical of what SGM is doing as they consistently put out high quality Christian music that I have greatly benefited from… this is rather one guy’s thoughts/opinions as he listens…  After each song, I’ve included my completely subjective rating…

Risen Excellent words (as w/almost every Sovereign Grace song), great biblical theology.  Music is not bad (I actually rather enjoyed it) but may be a tad distracting for some — has a driving beat. [A-]

Oh, What a Day Solid lyrics – and the music seems appropriate to the theme.  That being said – and not every song has to do this – there isn’t any new ground being broken here. [B]

You Have Been Raised Wow.  Here is a fresh approach to a core doctrine.  The music is subtle and fantastic. [A+]

We Have Been Healed This is the first song that feels like it would work in a congregational setting.  For the most part, the music doesn’t overpower the lyrics – which are, again, rock solid. The song sort of falls apart a bit at the end – feeling more like a freeform jam session than a tight ‘performance’… [B+]

Your Name Alone Can Save  Again, there is nothing to quibble about when it comes to lyrical content (“You’ve overcome the grave/You took our curse away/There is no other name by which we’re saved”)… There can be times where repetition becomes tedious in music but the repetition of the bridge seems to have intentionality – I found it helpful. [A]

He Has Risen This may be the first song on the album that has the feel of poetry (maybe track #1, Risen).  A great statement about the sufficiency of what Christ did for us. The music is pretty good and not distracting.  It’s possible that the song may go on about 30 seconds too long… [B+]

To Live Is Christ I could tell from the first 5 seconds of this song that I was going to like it…  I think it shows real genius to take such a well-worn passage of Scripture and make it feel new.  Another song that seems to feel at home in a congregational setting.  Music is beautiful and not overpowering, vocals are very well done. [A+]

Jesus Lives The truths in this song are undeniable and well stated — clearly that’s of first importance… However, the music just wasn’t great to me and at times it was a bit distracting.  This song may have the best opening so far on the album – “I no longer fear the grave, Christ has come…”  The music and lyrics really draw you in.  Unfortunately, the rest of the song doesn’t really seem to live up to the early billing.[B-]

You Are Our Hope Great song.  The lyrics and music really seem to fit well together.  There is something  SGM does occasionally (often?), which is inserting a two or three line ‘tag’ that gets repeated a couple (or few) times between a verse and chorus — something they use to good effect on this song. [A]

Name Above All Names Maybe I’m hearing something that’s not there but I don’t recognize the singer’s voice on this song – I like it.  The lyrics are very strong, again more poetic than some others.  What a great song about the name of our Savior.  I love the way the song ends, with stripped down music it just sort of fades out.  Nice. [A+]

We Will Rise  Some songs just grab me from the ‘get go’ – this is one of them.  Almost has a folksy feel (at least that’s how I’d describe it).  This one, more than the other songs, really has the feel of poetry put to music. Oh man, the bridge almost made me cry — the combination of the lyrics (“Weeping may last for an evening/But rejoicing comes with the dawn”) + music + almost haunting vocals = too much to take.  This may be the best song on the album. [A+]

Behold Our God All right, clearly SGM was holding a few face cards in reserve… I’ve listened to the album a few times already — how is this surprising me now?  Absolutely beautiful music coupled with such powerful lyrics.  I love the use of questions in this song (something they also did in “You Have Been Raised”).  [A+]

Hail the Day If I haven’t already given away my lack of musical prowess, I surely will now.  There is one distracting thing about this song – that is the weird reverb-electric guitar thingy going on at the beginning — again, not sure what it is but it really did distract me.  At least its gone now.  Nice song that has the feel (lyrically) of a more traditional hymn.  After the initial weird guitar thing, (oh, wait there it was again at like 2:35 – now its gone again, I think…) this song settled down for me.  Enjoyed it, although the end had some of that background, unintelligible singing (sort of like ‘Revelation Song’, if you know that one).  Ok, here’s the real end and it finishes off very traditionally with a piano solo.  Nice. [B+]

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