Various Artists

Item: Exodus
Author: Dave Landsel

Exodus

(1998)

Reviewed by Dave Landsel

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL YouTube Music

Label Rocketown RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth1998

ccm pop rock worship

I think most modern "praise and worship" music is a tacky American cultural thing. I was raised a snob, you see, in the highest of high church environments. Ours was not a church where one waved one's hands in the air during Sunday Service, singing "Our God Reigns," and it was our business as youngsters to scoff at those that did so.

I'm over that, mostly. I must admit, however, (with the sincerest of apologies) that I still get my own private yucks when certain individuals in my church get what I consider to be entirely too animated during our weekly rendition of "Hosanna" or some other danceable tune. A few years in and out of evangelical circles has taught me to appreciate different forms of worship. However, in the interest of full disclosure, when I saw this latest project from the capable Michael W. Smith, what attracted me was the very cool Jimmy A. penned illustration on its cover (his artistic renditions inside, of each band on the project are priceless).

Despite all my big talk, I must admit to being a closet Smitty (don't you just gag when people call him that) fan, so the opening track, "Exodus" immediately caught my ears, it's in the vein of a lot of the instrumentals on his most recent record, Live the Life. By mid number, I was overwhelmed with emotion at the beauty of his keyboard work and the haunting accompaniments. In other words, it got, and kept my attention. I kept listening and was pleasantly surprised by the new DC Talk cut which came up next. Entitled "My Will," the lyrics hit me right where it hurts:

Complexity haunts me, for I am two men
Entrenched in a battle that I'll never win
My discipline fails me, my knowledge it fools me
You are my shelter, all the strength that I need.

Jars of Clay unfortunately left me with a bad taste in my mouth - how could a new band with such promise fall so flat, and yet people be so oblivious? The track is so-so, kind of sappy. I guess not every tune on a various artists album is going to be exceptional. The next one, however, most definitely fits that description. Leigh Bingham-Nash's vocals ring out clearly, in Sixpence None the Richer's adaptation of an old Celtic prayer:

My heart is as dark as the soil
Sodden with winter rains.
My soul is as heavy as the peat
Freshly dug from the bog.

Oh, people! Talk about a word picture! Can't you just see the beauty of Ireland?

Help me open my heart
To you oh Jesus
It's what I long to do.

It's simple and childlike, and I love that in a worship song.

Now, you'd never have told me I'd sit bolt upright and go "Wow!" over a Cindy Morgan tune, but her very ethereal "Make Us One" is breathtaking, if not overly musically complex. Chris Rice chips in with an adaptation of a popular hymn I used to know ("What can wash my sins away? Nothing but the blood of Jesus"), setting it in his trademark acoustically based vein. The relatively new "guy-group" The Katinas also do a great job of a favorite of mine "Draw Us Close."

You're all I want
You're all I ever needed
Help me to know you are near.

I feel like I'm sitting in the cavernous Willow Creek auditorium, watching those very words up on the screen. The thought amuses me.

Third Day hikes up the intensity level, with the MWS-penned version of the "Agnus Dei," which certainly inspires. I respect this band a lot, I find them to be very straightforward, simple and satisfying, like a meal at your favorite diner. Hearing them speak at the Cornerstone festival this year really impressed me. Crystal Lewis's rendition of the Sunday Morning Special "Salvation Belongs to our God" is fine. Very nice. And, if Michael W. Smith (I can't bring myself to use that awful nickname again) hadn't just put out a fabulous project with lots of new material, I might have been disappointed that his entry on the record was a cover of the Rich Mullins classic "I See You." But, hey - it's a nice gesture to the late songwriter, and he does it well.

So if I've left you a tad perplexed with my ramblings, and you are unsure exactly what my feelings are on the project, let's recap: I like it a lot, almost without exception. I think it's one of the best modern worship compilations I've heard. Artistically, it stands head and shoulders above the recent Maranatha/Integrity Music type offerings, it's genuine, it pleases me and actually points me to God, which is the intention, I suppose.

3.5 tocks