Brightwork – Hope for Love

brightwork- hope for love

Independent

Release Date: October 7th 2014

Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre

BrightworkHope for Love (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

  1. Rescue Remedy
  2. Let Me Love You
  3. Difference
  4. Hope For Love
  5. Write This Down
  6. Valley
  7. More
  8. Now or Never
  9. Someone to Save Me
  10. Heart Shaped Hole

‘…Our heart is to integrate our desire in performing and creating music with the mission of loving people, sharing hope through our times together. To us, music is just the means we’ve been given to genuinely connect with people and share what really matters…our songs are a way that we get to express that love and share our goals, doubts, and the experiences that they come from…’ Though indie worship band Brightwork have been around for a while, I’ve only recently listened to them with the release of their Hope for Love EP that they released earlier during the year. Now releasing their full length album Hope for Love in October 2014, this unique indie pop/rock/worship band has shown us songs and styles in a similar vein to artists like The Royal Royal, Abandon or Sanctus Real.

This is a band to take notice of, as each of these 10 melodies highlight what is the best in electronic worship and pop. While I’ve only heard this new album from Brightwork, I’m instantly a fan. With honest truths poignantly shown to listeners in a relevant way, we are given a set of songs to reflect upon in every season, from the title track encouraging us to hold onto hope, and the hope of God’s love, to the powerful ‘Do Something’-esque melody “Difference” that encourages us to travel out of our comfort zones and help the people we meet, as we realise that ‘…I’ve got hope, so here’s what I’ll do with it, I’ll give everything I’ve got to show love, be the one that makes the difference…’ (“Difference”).

With three of the songs from Brightwork’s EP of the same name released earlier this year, the band give us radio friendly melodies and reflective songs in some of this year’s most underrated songs that encourage us to make a change in the world we live in. “Difference”, “Rescue Remedy” and “Write This Down” are all standouts on this 10 track album, with each of them bringing to the table a different unique style that we can hear as the band offer us themes of positive change, reliance on God and on each other.

Upbeat melody “Rescue Remedy” starts the album with electronic keyboards and hard-hitting guitars as we hear the band declare ‘…You’re my rescue, You’re my remedy, You’re the answer, right in front of me…’, a cry of declaration to the Lord as we give all we are to Him; while radio friendly “Difference” mixes light acoustics, electronic keyboards and a powerful vocal a la Matt Hammitt or Mike Grayson as we are reminded to a difference whenever and wherever we are- a message of hope and proactive love as we show Christ to our neighbours and friends in the way we act and relate to them. “Write This Down” is the last representative from the EP, as the band bring us a song with a stripped back nature full of acoustics as the message of declaring God Lord over everything we are and everything we do encompassed within these three minutes. Surrendering to God everyday is a conscious choice, and hopefully this song will bring much more direction and clarity to listeners of CCM (and mainstream) music around the world.

With stirring percussion and an acoustic guitar backdrop, we are met with the vulnerable “Valley”, a song that brings the theme of not wanting to travel down the hard and difficult roads of life to the fore and unites people across all walks of life. No one wants to travel down these roads of life, yet this song, while mellow and full of lament, offers us hope in a way that we are not alone in our travels- everyone else around the world goes through difficult times just as much as us. “More” brings the rock found in Skillet and Fireflight to us in hard hitting guitar strums as Brightwork encourages us that ‘…you and me were made to be more, more than what we see…so much more…’ and hopefully bring us onto a path of discovering our careers and goals in life, while “Now Or Never” brings a sense of urgency amidst the electronic keyboard notes as the band encourage us to let go of our fear and place our trust in God the Father.

With themes like allowing love to be showered over us unconditionally by our family and Christ our Lord (“Let Me Love You”), and us being the hope for our generation as we speak love into people we meet (“Hope for Love”), Brightwork ends the album with some of my favourites- “Someone to Save”, a song that highlights the keyboards as the main instrument and a gang vocal introduction as  Brightwork remind us all that we are searching for something, and asks the question- ‘…is it love, is it change, is it hope for a brand new day? All I want, all I need is someone to save me…’; and “Heart Shaped Hole”, a reflective album-ender that reminds us that we all have a heart-shaped hole in need of a Saviour to fill it. A song that encourages us to think deeply at our own holes in our hearts- figuratively, spiritually and metaphorically; this is a great song by Brightwork, and one of my favourites on Hope for Love.

Brightwork’s new music collection, Hope for Love is indeed an album full of hope and love as indie artists continue to break new ground and release great music in the year of 2014, with Brightwork being one of them. While they are still relatively new to the music industry, Hope for Love is sure to change all of that as the band continue to rise up my own ranks to deliver an album that’s one of my favourites by an indie artist/band in 2014 so far. A band to listen to if you enjoy artists like Sanctus Real, Abandon or Audio Adrenaline; this is a A+ effort from Brightwork and an album that’s going to be on rotation on iTunes for a while yet!

3 songs to listen to: Heart Shaped Hole, Rescue Remedy, Valley

Score: 4/5

RIYL: Audio Adrenaline, The Royal Royal, Abandon, Sanctus Real

2 thoughts on “Brightwork – Hope for Love”

  1. Great review guys! Unfortunately this album hasn’t really taken hold of me. That doesn’t mean there aren’t highlights. I love Valley, In fact that’s one of my favourite worship songs of the year. All the slower songs really got me, but the up tempo ones did nothing. It doesn’t really separate itself from other artists of the same genre, but it does the genre it’s in quite well. Overall it has a great sound and quality, and I can definitely understand the four star rating. But for me, it’s a 3/5.
    God Bless guys!

    1. Thanks for the comment Luc! Glad you liked the review! Yeah, the album is alright, I think Jon liked it more than me lol 🙂 One of the most underrated artists of 2014, I think they’ll be signed to a label pretty soon…

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