Matthew West Releases New Album Featuring "Never Ever Give Up"

I have been waiting for this since I heard the song during the KLOVE Fan Awards movie event. He wrote "Never Ever Give Up" for a little girl named Brooke who was battling cancer. I loved it the first time I heard it and was checking YouTube every couple months to see if he'd released an audio for it yet. I wanted to listen! He finally released it on his newest album, "All In".  

This post has been a long time coming, but album reviews take time to put together, and each time I'd come to post, I wouldn't have time. Better late than never! I'm going to review my favorite songs from the album (which may end up being the majority, we'll see :)

ALL IN
We'll start with the title track. What I like about this song is how it truly is about every single person. West sings, "we're all dying to live, but we're all scared to death". Doesn't that just about sum up everyone? This song, with its message and beat, is a great foot forward for the album.

BROKEN THINGS
You've heard this one on the radio long before the album came out. How does he do it? This song, like Mended, speaks to us when we feel useless to God. "The pages of history, they tell me it's true/ that it's never the perfect, it's always the ones with the scars that you use". The end of the chorus ties this song with the "all in" theme of the album as it says, "then here I am, Lord, I'm all yours". Wonderful, incredible song. 

THE SOUND OF A LIFE CHANGING
This is like a biography of West's life in a song! I love it. He starts off as a broke college student, attending a SCC concert (yes! :) and he hears God say, "that's gonna be you someday". How cool is that? Then it switches to him singing and "you're in the crowd, looking at me/ singing Child of the One True King" and he's thinking that any one person in that crowd could be experiencing what he did years ago. 

I love the way West is so humble about being used by God: "I'm no Billy Graham, but I come as I am, and you know that you can too". Any one moment can be the moment our life changes. 

Oooh! Here's the story of the song!

1 SONG
West has great lyrics, but he also has great music. This beat gets stuck in my head a lot. "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah" :) In '1 Song' the idea is that if he could only sing one song, it would be for God, but I also think it is a good reminder that we never know when our last is, so it should all be for God. 

And the finale.... NEVER, EVER GIVE UP
As I said at the beginning of this post, this song was written for Brooke, but I think it's going to encourage a lot of people who are going through incredibly challenging seasons. My favorite aspect is the upbeat music :) I can't help but smile and want to dance a bit when I hear this song. Added to it are the lyrics which are just so encouraging. Here's the song and then the video of Matthew and Elizabeth Hasslebeck surprising Brooke with the song. It's super sweet.

I don't know that I could pick a song off this album to be my favorite. I listen to all of these almost equally. Depends on what's in my head at the time. Usually I'm singing one of them and then I want to listen to the real thing. Hope you enjoyed this!

Follow Your Heart

I should have known better. 

Anthem Lights wouldn't make a song about following my own heart. But guys (I'm talking to AL here), seriously, the title makes some people shy away. 

You shouldn't, though. LISTEN TO THIS SONG! And I'm giving you the opportunity right now, aren't you lucky? :)

This is not about following your own heart. No. It's actually about how the world tells us to do that very thing and it's folly. Instead, we need to follow GOD'S heart. (That's the "your" to which they are referring).  

I really like this song and wish I'd discovered it much earlier. 

Happy Listening!

 Behind the Song!

Even If ~ MercyMe

To have faith like this, that is my prayer. That is what I strive toward.

Tenth Avenue North's new album "Followers"

I am so excited for TAN's new album Followers! It seems like they have "found" themselves again. I'm glad I can enjoy their music again :)

The whole album is wonderful, but my favorites are "Overflow", "I Have This Hope", & "Control". "One Thing" is also fantastic, but I'm not going to discuss it here.

Overflow brings to mind the imagery from Psalm 23, "my cup overflows". It's a very upbeat, positive song that reminds you to focus on and be grateful for all your gifts and blessings. Our cups, or hands as in the song, overflow with good things if we have eyes to see.

I follow TAN on Spotify and they recently did an exclusive live-stream for Spotify followers. During the mini-concert, they explained the inspiration for this song. The Bible verse Isaiah 43:2 was part of the inspiration. As I said, this is one of my favorite songs on the album and Isaiah 43: 1-2 is my confirmation verse. That was a very neat correlation. 

The verse for Control (also told during the Spotify event) is Acts 17:25. This was another cool correlation as Acts 17:24-25 was one of my quotes when I did Bible quizzing. It was very neat that two of my favorite songs were based on verses that mean something personally to me. 

I highly recommend the album Followers. If you like TAN, especially their first two albums, I truly think you'll enjoy their latest release. Happy Listening!  

In case you want to listen to the whole thing....

 

Plans ~ Kyle Kupecky

Holt International is one of the sponsors/partners of Winter Jam and in one of the videos they showed, there was this really great song that I had never heard. So I quickly wrote down some of the lyrics to look up when I got home. The artist is Kyle Kupecky, former singer in Anthem Lights! What fun! This is such a wonderful song that reminds me of the verse Jeremiah 29:11. And that's not a coincidence ;)

Happy Listening!

Behind the music with Steven Curtis Chapman

For me, songs are made so much more powerful when I know the meaning and the story behind them. I really enjoy and connect to Steven Curtis Chapman's songs and I found a bunch of behind the music videos for his songs.




Here are the stories behind the songs "Something Beautiful", "Finish What He Started", "Glorious Unfolding", "Take Another Step", "Love Take Me Over"

                                     
                                     

Amen ~ Steven Curtis Chapman

Steven Curtis Chapman is one of my all-time favorite artists and he does not disappoint with his latest single "Amen". As he says in the behind the music on this song, it's about agreeing with God and affirming that what He has said is true. Steven says it best and I've posted the behind the music video below. You should definitely check it out.

Happy Listening!

I am in love with Hawk Nelson!!!!

Their newest album Diamonds is just fantastic. Here is the title track for your enrichment and encouragement. 

Diamonds are formed under intense stress and pressure and Hawk Nelson's latest album, Diamonds, explores how God uses our struggles to transform us. Lead singer Jon Steingard states, "Diamonds talks about how God can use pressure, struggle, trials, and stress in our life and make it into something stronger and more beautiful." Being diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer at 19, a parent losing a four-month old baby to SIDS, a teacher giving her life to protect her young students through a tornado, and countless people being executed by ISIS seems incredibly unfair. Satan works hard during these times to fee you lies and make you assume you have failed God in some manner. God uses these exact situations to strengthen people with more inner beauty.

~ Hear It First's Elise Cleary

Happy Listening!!!