Capitol CMG
Release Date: March 29th 2024
Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre
Chris Tomlin – Live From Good Friday (Amazon mp3/iTunes)
Track Listing:
- Good Good Father / Great Are You Lord
- Ephesians 1:20-23
- Holy Forever (feat. Jenn Johnson)
- How Great is Our God
- Our God
- Is He Worthy?
- At the Cross (Love Ran Red)
- Whom Shall I Fear (God of Angel Armies)
- Always
- Precious Love
- It is Well
Chris Tomlin is Chris Tomlin is Chris Tomlin. At this stage in Chris’s career and the hits he has amassed over the years, you can introduce him as Chris Tomlin, and most people would know his career thus far. Well…at least they should. Creating powerful songs over the years that have been sung in many churches on Sunday mornings over the world for decades (songs like ‘How Great is Our God’, ‘Our God’, ‘Indescribable’, ‘Holy is the Lord’, ‘Jesus, Messiah’, ‘I Will Rise’, ‘God of This City’, ‘We Fall Down’, ‘Forever’, ‘Famous One’, ‘Enough’ and ‘Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)’ to name a few), Chris is by far one of the most recognisable worship singer-songwriters of today, maybe even second to the music of Hillsong (in all of its multifaceted forms- Worship, UNITED & Y&F). So it’s with no surprise that after his wildly successful and crossover CCM/country album Chris Tomlin & Friends (alongside it’s subsequent EP Chris Tomlin & Friends: Summer EP), as well as his 2022 album Always, is…you guessed it, another worship album- this time, it’s Live From Good Friday…I suspect the album was recorded live on Good Friday 2023, and released digitally on Good Friday 2024? You know that the country-esque sound that inspired arguably one of the most ‘out-of-the-box’ releases of 2020, wasn’t going to last long term, right? Regardless of how innovative and unique Chris Tomlin & Friends was, he was always going to go back to his tried and tested sound we all knew and loved (or even loved less and less as each album released). Regardless of how we feel about Chris and his music, there’s no denying the impact he’s had on CCM. And so here we are, with Live From Good Friday, 2 years after Always.
My favourite era of Chris Tomlin music, was, and always will be, the ‘Arriving to Burning Lights era’. All of these albums released in that era were gems. Not that I disliked any of the other albums released outside of that era (Not to Us, Never Lose Sight and Love Ran Red were decent and solid, and Chris Tomlin & Friends was very innovative and unique), but nevertheless, that’s the era of Chris’s music that I gravitate to, every time. So how does Chris’s new live album stack up, compared to albums in years gone by? Is Chris really offering something new to the worship music table, a genre of music that is, fortunately or not, being dominated by bands and artists like Hillsong, Elevation and Bethel, right now? I guess it’s a matter of opinion, but if you’d like my true, honest opinion…well, if you’re looking for something unique and innovative, something new (there isn’t any ‘new’ song on this live album, just 11 songs which are live iterations of songs from Chris’s back catalogue of music), then this album unfortunately isn’t it. Gone are the days of the innovative sounds of the Arriving – Burning Lights era, and in it’s place are just songs about the same recycled themes that Chris has delivered year upon year upon year. Nothing wrong with that though, but rarely nowadays, do I find a Chris Tomlin album satisfying from start to finish. There are decent songs here and there, but to find something like Burning Lights again (where, in my opinion, every song on there was single-worthy) would probably seem like an impossibility from now onward. There are songs on this live album that are great reminders of that particular powerful Chris Tomlin era of the past (songs like ‘How Great is Our God’, ‘Our God’, ‘At the Cross’, ‘Whom Shall I Fear’, ‘It is Well’ and ‘Good Good Father’), but all in all, Chris’s new era of songwriting and singing unfortunately pales in comparison to the 2000s and the early 2010s of Chris’s music career. Sure, you have the odd single that blows up on every album of his, but it’s nothing like albums like Burning Lights, See the Morning, or even his 2004 album Arriving (for me, I reckon that was Chris’s magnum opus). This live album, unfortunately, is only for die-hard fans of Chris’s music (and even then, I’d still prefer studio tracks over live albums, any day of the week).
Chris will always be polarising. They’ll be people who love his music, and then they’ll be people who’ll think he’s ‘basic’. I fall in the middle, some albums I absolutely love, and then there’s others, where I appreciate the album from an objective standpoint, but I myself can’t connect to it as much as others. ‘Holy Forever’ is my favourite song from Chris Tomlin’s Always (and is again a standout here on this live album) as this track becomes my favourite Chris Tomlin ballad, ever since ‘At the Cross (Love Ran Red)’ back in 2014. The rest of the album is…like how I expect any Chris Tomlin album of late, to be? Chris is still going to be Chris. For now, here’s hoping that there’ll be a sequel to Chris Tomlin & Friends in the future. This album feels more akin to…any kind of Bethel Music album currently releasing over the last few years? Whatever the case, Chris and his music are here to stay. These songs for the church (especially ‘Holy Forever’, ‘Always’ and ‘Precious Love’ from his 2022 album) are evidence enough of this.
3 songs to listen to: Holy Forever, How Great is Our God, Is He Worthy?
Score: 3/5
RIYL: Bethel Music, Elevation Worship, Passion, Matt Redman, Jesus Culture