With over two years of songwriting and production, Lion engraves in the hands of history that Elevation Worship is one of the grandmasters of the gospel music sphere. There’s no doubt that they’re anointed by God, they have a sharp sense of unique rhythm, and the humility to maintain God as their primary audience. It’s not hearsay that they also have the uncanny ability to make their music relatable to all kinds of people.
Elevation Worship is a contemporary worship music band from Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. The band is well known for ground-shattering albums, they have a track record of consistency, from albums like Rattle!, released in 2020, Graves into Gardens in 2020, Old Church Basement in 2021, which won the Grammy for contemporary Church Christian Music Album, and now LION released in early 2022.
I’ve not fully recovered from Old Church Basement and I never want to recover from that album, and now LION is here and it exceeded my high expectations. To be honest, I never reviewed Old Church Basement, cause I felt I’ll downplay its impact with my writing. This time, I ain’t listening to my fears and I’m jumping into LION’s review with both hands and legs. LION is an album of fourteen tracks, in addition, the award-winning songwriter, Pastor Steven Furtick, stated that it took over two years for LION to be born. For me, that’s strong evidence of an album well done.
This review would be broken into three parts, this post is the first part of this review. I’ll be writing a review on each of the tracks in order. That being said, let’s get into it, shall we?
1. Bye Bye Babylon (ft. Valley Boys)
This track seeps in hope and peace to the heart of every listener, the guitars held the lyrics and there was beating of drums that sounded like bongo drums, the kind that you find in the country side.
There was visual imagery of people suffering under horrible conditions, the rhythm gives us hope for a brighter future in Christ, letting us know that soon enough, Abba has His ways of getting us out of oppression. Nowadays, technology and sporadic economic advancement makes it look like all is well with the world, but in reality, the bad is getting worse, and the worse is getting really difficult to handle.
This song reminds us that we have a father, Abba, who is never out of touch with our infirmities and is ever ready to lead us out of captivity to a place of succor and peace (Hebrews 4: 15-16).
2. What I See (ft. Chris Brown)
There’s a reason this song follows Bye Bye Babylon, this is because it tells us the victory that we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The potency of His sacrifice is for all men to benefit from, that gives us the guarantee that we’re no longer slaves of oppression, and of sin and death (Colossians 1: 13-14).
His sacrifice gives us the leverage to break free and breathe in hope as we walk out of the prisons of Babylon (Hebrews 4:16). Although the world is turning upside down, as long as our eyes is fixated on the potency of His sacrifice, the twists and turns of this world don’t matter. Truth is, sometimes we forget, but this song helps set minds aright, zooming our focus on the right thoughts, and that’s Jesus (Romans 8: 37-39).
The drums, bass guitars, the sync of the keyboard with the salient voices of the backup singers carried this song so much so that the audience didn’t stop roaring even after the music ended.
3. Same God (ft. Jonsal Barrientes)
This track reminds us of the journey of the ancient patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith, making the listeners understand that the same God that they served is the same that we’re serving. We hear about David, Abraham, Sarah, Mary, and many others. The leopard might decide to change its spots (Isaiah 40:8), but the authenticity and faithfulness of the God that we serve is forever sure (Malachi 3:6).
When we’re in dire need of help, we tend to think that God is out of touch with our problems. This song reminds that He’s never uninvolved with our circumstance, and we can bask in His track record of faithfulness (Numbers 23:19).
It lets us know the impact of the Holyspirit and how He constantly bears witness with our spirits that we’re children of God (Romans 8:16). Being filled with the Holyspirit on a daily basis helps us engineer our hearts away from our problems to the One who’s able to give us peace in the turbulent storms of life (Acts 7:55).
Stay tuned for more reviews are coming up regarding this album, our next post would be dissecting the next five tracks on the album. The next track is the eponymous track ‘LION’, to keep your anticipation levels high up, below is a video to get you started . In the mean time, let me know your best track of the album in the comment section. Also, do well to let me know your reaction to this review in the comment too.
Nice!!
Nice one👍