Happy New Year! :)

Hi everyone!

It's been a while (quite a long while actually). December's been an absolutely crazy month... TheEDGE conference, jetsetting to Taiwan with the Mrs., planning and running the Christmas outreach at my home church, planning and running my office's year-end event, planning and running my brother-in-law's proposal to his girlfriend (now fiancee!)...

In the meantime, I've been listening to lots and lots of Third Day's Move, which I'm just loving more and more with every listen. Mac Powell + strings = AWESOMENESS! The proof is in the super track Surrender, which you can listen to in my initial impressions of the album.

I've also gotten my hands on the latest offering from The Afters, titled Light Up The Sky. It's an addictive album, has a very One Republic feel and vibe to it. I'll try and find time to review it soon!

Of course, I still have outstanding my reviews for Chris Tomlin's And If Our God Is For Us... and Charlie Hall's The Rising, I'm sorry!!! Please be patient and those will come real soon.

In the meantime, I just thought I'd share a little song called Sometimes By Step by a great Christian music pioneer, the late Rich Mullins. You would have heard that famous chorus in Hillsong Australia's latest offering A Beautiful Exchange - Brooke Fraser covers it in her beautiful song Like Incense.

I bought this album called Here In America, a collection of previously unreleased material by Rich Mullins quite a few years back (I think it might have been 7 to 8 years ago). While the CD was pleasant enough, it was the accompanying DVD that was a real treasure. On it was a full-length mini-concert of Rich singing his songs and sharing stories and Biblical insights, just months before his tragic death in a car accident in 1997.

I lent it out to a friend (I don't even remember who now) about 3 years back and it disappeared after that. Recently it re-surfaced and came back to me on 31 Dec. I was so elated I forced my wife to sit down with me and watch clips from what must be one of the most phenomenal Christian music performances of all time.

There was no hype, no lights, no big sets. There was just Rich, the Ragamuffin Band, a small audience and the indescribable sense of history being made in that small studio. And everytime I watch that DVD, it sends chills down my spine and gives me goosebumps. And occasionally, I cry.

Ok, fine. Frequently, I cry.

You have to watch it to know what I mean. Before he sings, Rich shares a bit about the nature and character of God, and there's no mistaking the earnestness and the pure, absolute genuinity of his words.






I might just organise a screening at home soon, so if any friends are interested, let me know and I'll give you the details! As soon as I get down to organising it, that is...

Jordin Sparks credits Michael W. Smith as her music mentor!

Who would have known that American Idol 2007 champion Jordin Sparks started off as a backup vocalist for MWS?

A few years ago Michael W. Smith brought a 15 year-old background singer on stage as a featured vocalist on one of his Christmas tours.  That singer was the future American Idol champion, Jordin Sparks.  Jordin shares in this video about the impact of her mentor, Michael W. Smith, and the importance of mentors in peoples lives.

Michael continues to stay in touch with Jordin and is humbled by this video that we had know (sic) idea was being created...  watch the video and think about those in your life that look up to you.  Sometimes you never know when someone is considering you their mentor and learning by watching how you live your life. (from michaelwsmith.com)

Here's the video, with a special cameo from Kevin Jonas:




I wish they had interviewed MWS in the video though... that would have been nice, and would have given a Grammy-winning CCM pioneer his well-deserved day in the sun.

Nonetheless, it's heartening to know that a mainstream singer is not afraid to quote a Christian artist as a main influence. Go Jordin!

First Listen - Charlie Hall's The Rising!

Listening to Charlie Hall has always seemed to me a little bit like eating pufferfish at a Japanese restaurant - an acquired taste that may or may not go well with everyone who tries it (although I haven't yet heard of anyone poisoned to death from listening to Charlie Hall).

His lyrics and melodies have always tended towards obscurity (seriously, who sings songs about being found between Porch and Altar?), and his very unique (being politically correct here) voice and singing style have left quite a lot of listeners (myself included) out in the cold.

So it was with great trepidation that I opened my copy of The Rising and popped it in my CD player.

And I found, to my surprise, that it was a lot more listenable than I thought it would be.

There are still lyrics that made me do a double-take (We are rising / In Your rising - from the title track Rising; and Come illuminate the face that brings the healing / Comd illuminate the truth that brings the freeing - from Breathe), and some melodies and arrangements still need some getting used to, but the album as a whole has a pleasant electro-pop-rock feel that doesn't grate on the ears.

I do think that some of the songs could sound better if arranged differently, and I'm still making myself get used to Hall's voice.

But for a start, at least I'm not averse to re-listening to the album for my full review.

For a change, I'm going to leave this open-ended until I've given the album a couple more listens. Who knows? Perhaps I'll turn into a die-hard Charlie Hall fan by the end of the week.


I can't say the same for pufferfish though.


Here're two tracks from the album for your kind perusal please - the title track Rising (A Song of Ascent) and the slightly-maudlin Deeper In Love:








Let us know what you think! Charlie fans - no hate mail please, I have a fragile heart.

Illuminated at TheEDGE Conference 2010 - Not Ashamed!

Illuminated will be covering TheEDGE Conference 2010 - Not Ashamed, happening 2 - 4 Dec at Victory Family Centre (VFC), Tampines!

This is the second year that VFC's youth ministry (TheEDGE) is organizing the international youth conference - last year's conference saw over 400 young people registered as delegates and close to 800 youths attending the night rallies every night!

We're SUPER excited this year because my personal hero (well, one of them at least) Pastor Jude Fouquier (Facebook | Twitter) will be preaching, together with the very gifted Henry Seeley (Facebook | Twitter) of Planetshakers fame! Of course, the youth pastor of VFC, Pastor Jeremy Seaward (Facebook | Twitter) will be there too to lay down the Word!
We'll be giving up-to-date coverage of what's going on at the conference via Facebook and Twitter, so make sure you're following us! We'll also do our best to bring you exclusive interviews with the three key speakers! So keep coming back during the conference for updates!



Not Ashamed Edge Conference 2010 from TheEDGE Singapore on Vimeo.


If you haven't already done so, you should sign up for what's going to be an amazing, life-changing conference! Visit the conference website today!

To find out more about TheEDGE ministries, click here!

First Listen - Chris Tomlin's And If Our God Is For Us...!

My initial impressions for Chris Tomlin's And If Our God Is For Us... can be summarized as such:

And If Our God Is For Us... > Hello Love

but

And If Our God Is For Us... < See The Morning < Arriving


That's not to say that AIOGIFU (sorry, album title too long) isn't a great album. It is. But at first listen, it doesn't quite reach the heights that Tomlin's earlier albums attained (less Hello Love, which I really had zero emotional attachment to).

AI (sorry, acronym too long) is a hodgepodge of downright brilliant songs like the opening track Our God (the title of the album is the first line of the bridge) - which was also performed on the 'live' Passion album Awakening - and pleasant but somewhat ho-hum tunes like Lovely.

If you liked Our God on the Passion album you'll love it here. Tomlin has given it the full choir + strings treatment, and it comes off sounding way grander than I could ever have imagined.

There's a superb duet with Christy Nockels - Faithful - and a song that smells like an instant classic to me - All To Us (it might just be the next How Great Is Our God, a song that's sung to death because it's so widely loved. Kinda like getting smothered to death by a hug.)

However, the one song that I couldn't get out of my head for days after I heard the album was the very pop-rock I Will Follow, replete with drum loops and falsetto vocal riffs (think One Republic).

The album closer is Awakening, which was the title track of the Passion album. I was mildly disappointed here because this song had such excellent potential to be the hugest, baddest, meanest final track on the album had it been given the Our God treatment. Sadly, no soaring strings = no super last song. It's still nice, but I kinda think the Passion version sounds nicer because it had 30,000 people singing along.

As is requisite for any Chris Tomlin album, there are a handful of upbeat numbers on AI. Same thing, I don't think they're bad, in fact they're pretty good, but just not great. No Chains On Me is a declaration of freedom, but it doesn't quite compare to insta-classics like Your Grace Is Enough (on Arriving) or the awesome Let God Arise (on See The Morning).

I shall be critical for now and give A (too lazy to type 2 letters!):

Stay tuned for my final review! In the meantime, here's the super super super super super version of Our God:




And here's No Chains On Me:

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Fan Mail!

Here at illuminated, we get really excited when we get fan mail! Actually, we get really excited when we get any type of mail. Because it gets reaaaaaaally quiet out here.

So we're pleased to reproduce in full, this fan mail/album review hybrid for Audrey Assad's The House You're Building from Ian Wu! (NB: All views expressed are Ian's, as are all typos and grammar errors. But we love Ian anyway! LOL!)

Having a male artist dominated playlist on my ipod, it was with a little apprehension that i decided to get this debut! Oh boy what a good choice i made!

The thing that struck me about this album was that it was essentially very very, simple. No flashy guitar solos, flowery synth effects (not that i have anything against those), but instead assad's voice was the star. It's a kind of album that you'll listen to on a rainy day, or well maybe just late at night with some warm lights and a cup of coffee.

So, I choose to believe, as i carry this cross, You'll carry me. Simple truths melodically spun into lyrics, what could be better? If i had to liken Audrey to any other artiste, he would be Jimmy Needham. Not so much for her musicality, but for her straight up, simple yet powerful lyrics, just like Jimmy's.

Folks this album is a must get! Kudos to elvin here for providing us all with a point of reference before purchasing any album, and of course theGLOW where i get all my albums from!

In His Love,
Ian

Keep the mail coming people! You can email us at illuminated.ee@gmail.com or just leave a comment after every post (look for a link that usually says 0 Comments - sad face).

We're working on getting illuminated onto Twitter so you guys can get updates even more regularly! PLUS we'll have a Twitter bar on the site so you can air your thoughts and discuss reviews with other fans at the same time! How cool is that!