The latest album from New Wine Worship features tracks from various worship leaders which will be familiar to anyone who attended the New Wine summer conferences.
Wildfire starts with an up-tempo electronic-influenced track, Lifeline, and although most of the songs are at a slower tempo, the electronica-influenced embellishments make appearances throughout the album. This means heavy synths on a number of tracks, programmed drumbeats and a plethora of catchy pop-like choruses. The dubstep influence on tracks like Forgiven is significant. This adds a different dimension to the average live worship album, but may be tricky for many local church worship bands to replicate.
Most of the tracks are home-grown New Wine offerings, but one of the album's centrepieces, This I Believe (The Creed) is a Hillsong cover. A couple of the songs here certainly sound like they have the potential to become popular anthems which are heard around the country and beyond – primary candidates for this include Wildfire (co-written by Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon and Nick Herbert) and Now Glorious. The new songs have all been written over the last couple of years, so no 'classics' make the cut.
One of the best features of the record is the number of different voices featured. Leaders include Sam Bailey, Susie Woodbridge and Lauren Harris. While none of them are 'household names' even in the Christian world, they're very competent and the likes of Bailey and Woodbridge have excellent voices that deserve a wide audience.
While other live worship albums feature the congregation high in the mix, that's not how this album works. In fact it seems like some of the tracks may have been overdubbed in the studio – such that it sounds more like a studio album, with applause at the beginning and end of tracks.
In terms of variety, it would have been nice to hear a couple of acoustic tracks. Even the 'quieter' songs such as Wildfire and O Lord We Seek You Face, are eventually bathed in a wash of synths – and to my mind, could have remained in a more restrained, acoustic style.
But overall, there is plenty to enjoy here. The album gives a snapshot of the worship at the New Wine gatherings and as the nights draw in, those who attended the conferences will want to get a copy to worship to and to remind them of the summer.
