Centricity Music

Release Date: July 17^th 2020 [At All Times] / August 28^th 2020 [Recover]

Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre

Caitie Hurst – At All Times (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes) / Recover (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

Track Listing:

1. At All Times
2. Recover

Caitie Hurst has been in the music industry for a few years now. Since unveiling her debut EP on Centricity Music titled How Can I Be Silent back in 2018, that featured the standout title track, alongside other memorable ones- ‘Walking on the Water’, ‘Wanderer’ and ‘Answers’ to name a few; Caitie’s introduction into a music industry that is ever changing, is one of joy and jovial enthusiasm as her music has become very infectiously enjoyable, and a reminder that Caitie herself, musically sounding, can travel alongside artists before her like Britt Nicole, Love & the Outcome and Lauren Daigle- because that is what I’d describe her musical genre. Nevertheless, Caitie’s introduction to CCM has resulted in a well-received EP, as well as a follow-up track ‘All the Things’, both the EP and the song can be read as reviews on the website here and here respectively. And as we fastforwarded to 2020, we saw Caitie give to us the song ‘Yours’, a song that showed us the way that God saw us, compared to how we see ourselves. Now in September 2020, Caitie has since given to us a further two more songs- ‘At All Times’ and ‘Recover’- whether or not both ‘At All Times’ and ‘Recover’, alongside previous ‘single’ tracks ‘Yours’ and ‘All the Things’ belong to a bigger project (EP or album) or otherwise still remains to be seen; but what I do know is this- ‘At All Times’ and ‘Recover’ are powerful songs by Caitie- the first one more of a worshipful melody, and the second a pop-EDM song that are both hauntingly emotive and poignant, and some of my favourite songs I’ve heard these last few months!

‘At All Times’ dropped digitally in July 2020, and as Caitie starts off the song itself, we’re hit with the powerful words of how we all ought to ‘…let Your praise be my confession and my life a threshing floor, no sacrifice You ask I can’t afford…’ We are all called to praise the Lord at all times- regardless of the situation we are in, and that what we’re in at a certain moment, determines whether God should be praised or not. He is praised because of who He is- and this song is a reminder that in spite of everything that we’ve had to deal with in our lives, God in all His glory gave us His Son, to pay our price of sin and death, for us to be reconciled back to Him, through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus. And that is why we should praise the Lord at all times, rather than what is happening in our very own lives. As worded by Caitie herself, ‘…we wrote this as a song that could be sung over and over no matter what circumstances around us looked like. When I look at life from an eternal perspective – I know I’m going to one day be singing praises to The Father forever- So that’s my hope. That’s why I can sing praises at all times. When I look at my life apart from heaven and the hope of Jesus Christ, it doesn’t make any sense. But with the hope of eternal life I have in Jesus Christ, I can say “I will praise the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.” Psalms 34:1…’ ‘Recover’, a song released shortly ago (the end of August), is presented in a pop/radio-friendly format as Caitie presents a theme of God recovering things that we may have lost, intentionally or not. It is a common thing to believe right now that what we have broken, God can’t redeem and fix, that what we have messed up, be it relationships, our own lives, that God cannot fix our mistakes, or even use them for our good and His glory, for whatever reason. Nevertheless, Caitie reminds us all that when God looks at us, He doesn’t see irreparable things, but rather, people that are broken that He will recover and use for our very good, in our lives where we understand that God works everything for our good, and I mean everything. As Caitie herself imparts to us the story behind her song, we see that this track has been written and recorded for anyone who may feel like God cannot recover the missing pieces in our lives- ‘…this song is for anyone who has ever felt like they wasted some part of their life, made a mistake you wanna erase, or anyone who keeps falling back into the same patterns of behavior you keep trying to change. For anyone who’s had a failed marriage, an addiction, found yourself in a bad relationship + made choices you wish you hadn’t, or maybe you’re in the most difficult time of your life right now where you’re not sure how there could ever be good that comes out of the circumstances you face each day. Whatever in your life has ever brought shame, pain, or disappointment – we wrote this song as a reminder that there is NOTHING God can’t redeem. Absolutely nothing…’ It is in these two quotes that I am impressed with both ‘At All Times’ and ‘Recover’ and its impact that it’ll have on a lot of people who hear the track. And until such a time where Caitie unveils to us another song, or an album or an EP, both these two tracks are great companions for us to have so that we can understand His undying and unending love for you and me, and that He will use whatever circumstance, and I mean whatever, to our good and His glory. We praise God not because of our circumstances, but of who He is. Well done Caitie for such a powerful track, looking forward to whatever album/EP comes next.

Score: 4/5

RIYL: Love & The Outcome, Lauren Daigle, Joy Williams, Jump5, Britt Nicole