I didn’t love it in the beginning – it was so different than anything I had heard before. The lyrics are raw and almost conversational. I finally dug out the album insert to actually find out who this band was and what on earth they were about besides cheerful folksy worship. I loved what I found. The album title is “homemade worship by handmade people”. The whole album was recorded in different homes around Ireland and the world. (they just got so cool right there – didn’t they?) In their own words “we refused to make an album in a studio separate from our normal lives. Humanity and the divine are what we are celebrating here, not with polish and perfection, but with authenticity.”
Lyrically they are spot on and so real. I’m married to a gifted song writer and I see him in action on a daily basis. He’s always singing to Ellie and Judah. Troy’s songs for the kids are about what they are currently doing and I’m constantly amazed at his ability to put words together, on the fly, that make sense and sound right. A few days ago he was in the living room with Ellie and she was dancing and he was singing. Each time she did a new move he incorporated it into his song. This is what this album reminds me of lyrically. It’s about living life with God in the daily and the raw. I love it. They also threw a hymn in there that is a beautifully redone version of “Be Thou my Vision”.
Here is a sample of one of my favorites:
Christ Has Set Me Free
You open horizons in my life/ Of limitless /And cloudless hope
You defy the gravity in me/ And give wings to / My flightlessness
Christ has set me free / From negativity / From impossibility
Christ has set me free / All hope has been released / O Christ has set me free
You have taught my future how to shine / All the colours of / Eternity
You’ve given my soul the space to breathe / And discover what / It is to simply be
Listen to Christ Has Set Me Free
Check out the Rend Collective website here.
