Hillsong: Glorious Ruins

Release Date: 28 June 2013

Genre: Contemporary Worship

Length: 66:05

Label: Hillsong Music Australia

Similar artists: Delirious? ; Matt Redmann; Jesus Culture; Chris Tomlin

Rating: 4/5

"Let the ruins come to life in the beauty of Your Name. Rising up from the ashes. God forever You reign"

The chorus of the title track of this album, “Glorious Ruins”, is an underlying theme found throughout the life of Hillsong Church leading up to the release of their latest album Glorious Ruins. These words stir up your soul and capture your imagination in a truly beautiful way. Brian Houston, Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church explains, “Ruins can speak of crushing defeat or perhaps of something abandoned, but the good news today is that the ruins come to life. …Through Jesus Christ what we look at is ruins that become glorious..." Whether it be through times of personal devotion or in your church, I pray that these lyrics stir your faith and love in Jesus Christ.

It’s hard to think of many artists that can make the world stop for a moment and listen when they release a new album – Hillsong are definitely one of the few. A lot of people think that, with each new Hillsong album released, you get the same kind of thing as their last album, having the mindset of “well if I’ve heard one album I’ve heard them all” but that sort of thinking can often be very wrong. I’m not saying that Glorious Ruins is an all new kind of sound that you won’t recognize, but there is definitely something different about this album.

"Glorious Ruins" is an oxymoron.  In a secular world it would be ridiculous to search for glory within the remains of one's ruins, however in the Bible we find that glory and ruins are often like two sides of the same coin. "Glorious Ruins," the title song, led by Joel Houston expresses the heart of this album. When he sings, "Let the ruins come to life/In the beauty of Your Name/Rising up from the ashes/God forever You reign."  This worship ballad, which speaks of resurrection after all we have hoped for in life has been crushed, and is reminiscent of how God raised an army out of dry bones in Ezekiel's time. "Christ is Enough," on the other hand, led by Reuben Morgan, has two distinct parts: in the first of these we find Morgan praising Christ as our sufficient provider.  The second part seamlessly tags on our response to Him with the hymn "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus."  Another song lead by Reuben Morgan called "Glorify Your Name" is an amazing song on this album, it was co-written with some of worship music's biggest names, such as Matt Maher, Chris Tomlin, Jason Ingram and Ed Cash. "We Glorify Your Name” is said to be a 20^th century version of the song "How Great Thou Art."

Glorious Ruins is definitely one of this year's greatest worship albums.  This album silences the thought that Hillsong Live is all about hype and nothing more. On the contrary they are a talented, faith-filled worship band that believes that even when it feels like our lives are in ruins, we will still be able to rise again from the ashes.  Such resurrection does not come from our own goodness and strength but rather from the death-defying power of our glorious and resurrected savior, Jesus Christ.

I cannot easily sum up this album; I do however believe that people will love it. It's another classic production from Hillsong, who in my opinion just seem to be getting better and better. With each release they seem to be getting more creative, and I applaud them as they still manage to do so after 21 album releases prior to “Glorious Ruins”. I honestly believe the songs on this album are stronger than previous ones, and if albums of the past worked well as a package then this album will truly set the bar for worship albums to come.

Do yourself a favour and buy this album, it will do you much good.

Song of The Week goes to; “We Glorify Your Name”

Stay happy chappies

D