Paul Baloche: Glorious
November 20, 2009
I have HUGE respect for Paul Baloche and especially love 2 things about his ministry: he’s the most affable and warm host (when leading worship) I’ve ever seen and his album’s aren’t over-produced. It sounds like a 5 or 6-piece worship band leading worship in their church.
“A Greater Song” was easily his best album and his previous effort (“Our God Saves”) gave us the standout tracks “Our God Saves” and “Hallelujah to my King”. That’s the first thing I noticed about this album – there isn’t even one track that jumps out to you as one of those songs. It’s a testimony to PB’s consistency that I’ve come to expect that from every album! The song son this CD aren’t poor – the songs are solid – but that’s the operative word here, “solid”.
I have a real lyrical question about the first track, “Glorious”. It contains the line “My eyes have seen the glory of the Lord”. Were the song about nature, it would make sense singing that line – but it’s not a nature song. So I’m left feeling that it’s borderline Biblically inaccurate to sing the line “My eyes have seen the glory of the Lord”, as it’s patently false! I’m not comfortable singing those words without any type of context (e.g. after talking about the starts, the mountains, etc.). Any thoughts?
My favorite track would be “Just to be With You”. It has that sweet, worshipful quality to it that’s corporate and personal at the same time.
The back half of the album is noticeably weaker than the first half. PB’s version of “Today is the Day” doesn’t compare to Lincoln Brewster’s version and “A New Hallelujah” is simply not that good, despite being hyped up by Worship Leader Magazine and other outlets (like “Healing Rain” a couple years ago).
Standout Tracks:
2 (“You Have Saved Us”)
3 (“Just to be With You”)
4 (“Wonderful God”)
Skip:
7 (“Today Is The Day”)
8 (“Shaken”)
9 (“We Will Hold On”)
10 (“Almighty”)
11 (“A New Hallelujah”)
Bottom Line:
Download the first 6 tracks for less than $6. Amazon Download Link.
November 21, 2009 at 9:42 am
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for hitting my site & dropping a comment.
I listened to the song and thought about your question regarding the line “my eyes have seen the glory of the Lord”. I didn’t wrestle with it as being unbiblical. I take it as more of a “scales being lifted from my eyes” kind of principle. A spiritual sense of encountering the power and presence of Christ in my life and describing it as having seen “the glory of the Lord”. I actually LOVE the line.
Just my two cents! Great site and great review! Thanks!
November 25, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I was a bit bummed by this album … and I agree, “A Greater Song” was the best album from Paul (followed by “Offering of Worship”)
January 25, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I was actually gonna say that “Today is the Day” is much more approachable to perform at church as compared to Lincoln….
I mean, give the song to my pastor: Lincoln and PB, and he will say, wow, good song, but we don’t want to upset the elders! I think Paul’s is very simplistic (like always) and it makes it easy to build upon to make it your own. I’d throw in 2-3 Lincoln riffs, and spice up the PB solo… but not to the Lincoln jam.
All in all, I agree with the rest