Fair Trade Services
Release Date: March 17th 2023
Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre
Phil Wickham – Sunday is Coming (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)
Track Listing:
- Sunday is Coming
Phil Wickham has always been one of my favourite worship artists, over the past decade or so. Since 2003 when he unveiled his debut album Give You the World, Phil has given to us powerful singles after powerful singles- ‘Grace’, ‘Divine Romance’, ‘After Your Heart’, ‘Safe’, ‘I’ll Always Love You’, ‘At Your Name’, ‘This is Amazing Grace’, ‘Glory’, ‘Living Hope’, ‘My All In All’, ‘Your Love Awakens Me’ and ‘Till I Found You’, to name a few. In a general sense, Phil has always had a knack at giving to us, great albums, period. From albums like his most recent full length studio album, 2021’s Hymn of Heaven (alongside 2022’s Hymn of Heaven (Acoustic), an acoustic re-recording of Phil’s powerful 2021 album), to the album that got me into the fandom, Response, as well as his chart-topping The Ascension and 2018’s Living Hope, Phil’s powerful and distinct voice cuts through all the cookie-cutter CCM that seems to seep through; and brings it home to be a reminder that great music artists still exist within the realms of CCM.
Phil’s been an artist that we have covered heavily on our site, and most recently, we reviewed both his Christmas single ‘Behold’, as well as his January 2023 single ‘This is Our God’. Now in April, a few months on; we see Phil unveil something new and exciting, unique, powerful, and enjoyable- it may be from a potential forthcoming album, or it could just be a standalone single, just like ‘This is Our God’. Whichever the case, Phil’s new song ‘Sunday is Coming’, just like his previous single, is one of my favourites of 2023 thus far. A song that reminds us of Easter and how the reason why we call Good Friday ‘Good Friday’ is because Sunday is coming. Though it was a sad day in history because of Christ’s death on the cross, what makes the day hopeful is the fact that we now know of what happens on the Sunday three days later. Christ is alive. He’s resurrected, and because of that, we celebrate not only the Sunday, but also the Friday. Phil delivers a great moment of worship, passion, enthusiasm, and powerful declaration, as this song can hopefully pop up in various Sunday morning worship set-lists, not only around Easter time, but at various points throughout the year- yes, it’s a song that is primarily relating around Easter, but the song itself can still be used as a worship song throughout the year as well. The song recounts Jesus’s life, death and resurrection, in song form, and reminds me thematically of other tracks like Carman’s ‘Sunday’s On the Way’, Chris Tomlin’s ‘At the Cross’ and Hillsong Worship’s ‘King of Kings’. ‘Sunday is Coming’ continues to remind us of how much of a powerful singer-songwriter Phil himself is, as he continues to assert himself to become a great worship artist alternative, for anyone who wants to listen to something else, other than Bethel, Elevation Worship or Hillsong. Well done Phil for such a powerful worship song. Maybe another full-length album in the future. Quite possible, considering the power of both of his new songs ‘This is Our God’ and ‘Sunday is Coming’, thus far.
Score: 5/5
RIYL: Kristian Stanfill, Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche, Tim Hughes, Matt Redman, Cody Carnes