Some quick first impressions:
This is not Today Is The Day, Lincoln's last outing. If I could describe the album in one word, it'd probably be this: worshipful.
Sure, this is a LB album so there's no lack of insane guitar solos and crazy licks. But there isn't that exuberant declaration that marked TITD. In fact, the songs are mostly introspective and written from places of need and desperation. This seems to have carried over into the way songs have been arranged. Everything feels simpler, a little more stripped down.
And once I got over the initial disappointment (I loved TITD, it was easily one of my favourite albums of 2008), the mellowed down mood of the album wasn't a bad thing at all.
Probably the one song that, in my opinion, summed up the album best (at least at this early stage of listening and reviewing), is the song Loved By You, a collaboration between LB and Paul Baloche.
The simple lyrics of the song are achingly honest and powerful, expressing a strong desire and need for God:
Mercy rain fall on me
Hide me now beneath Your wings
Hold me close to Your side
For I am Yours and You are mine
I was made to be loved by You
To be loved by You to be loved by You
I was made to be loved by You
To be loved by You to be loved by You
With that, here's my first rating of the album:
I'm tempted to say more and write a full review now, but that wouldn't be doing the album (and you, the reader) due justice.
So I'll be listening to it for another week, and I'll have a full review by then. In the meantime, you might want to sample some of LB's tracks on his website. Or, if you're a total LB nut like me, you can head straight to http://www.theglow.com.sg/ and get the album straightaway!
Keep a lookout for my next review, Michael W. Smith's Wonder! Hopefully I'll get it tomorrow!
