We Have A Saviour
Label: Hillsong Music Australia
Release Date: October 9th 2012 (Amazon mp3/iTunes)
Track Listing:
- O Come Let Us Adore Him
- Joy To the World
- Born Is The King (It’s Christmas)
- Emmanuel
- O Holy Night
- We Have A Saviour
- Hark The Herald Angels Sing
- God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Tidings)
- Unto Us
- Gloria (Angels We Have Heard On High)
- Our King Has Come
- The First Noel (Holy Is The Lord)
Initial thoughts: One of the most controversial worship movements ever releases a Christmas album? Of course you all should listen to this album at least once. If it’s not for you then it’s not for you.
Reason to listen: If you can look past the name of the group and the divided opinions about them (especially right now in light of everything that has happened with Carl Lentz), the project is quite solid, with a good mix of worshipful carols and original Christmas tunes. Although a downside is that 7 out of 12 tracks are either originals or traditional carols with added choruses. So if you’re looking for extreme familiarity… then you may not find it here.
Reason to buy: Out of my own free will, I wouldn’t see out a Hillsong album, unless it was really cheap. But this is a Christmas album, so perhaps anything is possible. Now should any of you buy this album? I think that’s the million-dollar question, don’t you? All depends on your opinion of Hillsong, I think.
Reason to skip: If you hate Hillsong, which might be some of you. Otherwise you can buy the album if you’re an absolute fan, or cherry-pick on Spotify if you’re a casual fan.
No. of carols: 7 (including 2 Christmas carols with an originally written chorus)
No. of originals: 5
No of guest artists: None, But Hillsong Worship have multiple singers anyway- so for anyone who doesn’t know Hillsong, it’d feel like many ‘guest vocalists’.
Does it have heart?: There definitely is heart here. How deep it goes, no one really knows except for them. I feel I’ve heard much more enthusiasm in Christmas albums from artists like Faith Hill, Pentatonix, Josh Groban and Martina McBride. Does that say something about the faith of these ‘mainstream’ artists or the faith of Hillsong? Maybe, maybe not…
Does it have a Christmas-y atmosphere?: It has a worship atmosphere, that’s for sure. But not a atmosphere of Christmas unfortunately. Doesn’t make it a bad album, but maybe not something to get you pumped about the Christmas season!
Uniqueness?: No, not really. It’s a worship album foremost over a Christmas… and we do have a lot of worship albums in our catalogue already!
Christmas message: every song is about the birth of Jesus. It’s very Biblical based, and for that reason alone, Hillsong Worship have done a wonderful job at bringing forth the gospel of Jesus. This also means that people who celebrate Christmas for the holiday aspect, won’t connect with We Have A Saviour at all!
Closing thoughts: All in all, a solid Christmas album- but an album that is middle-of-the-road and one that will gain dust on my CD shelf for the many years to come. The 5 originals are good in their own right though.
3 songs to listen to: Emmanuel, We Have A Saviour, Our King Has Come
Overall rating: 3.5/5
Yes/no; why/why not?: I wouldn’t bust my guts to find a copy of the album, if you know what I mean. I’d listen on Spotify and then move onto something more exciting, like the latest Christmas album from Pentatonix or Tommee Profitt!