Review: Sovereign Grace Music: Savior

I was sent Sovereign Grace’s latest Christmas Album, Savior, to review by Worship Matters blog. I’ll be honest, my expectations were not that high considering the genre. Christmas music is most often a broad road of lyrical cliche surrounded by cheesy instrumentation and bad group vocals. There are a few exceptions to that terrible generalization and thank God for those exceptions. So I tried to clear my head of any expectation and listen with an open mind and heart. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. I’ll give a song by song blow, and then my overall summary. I go with a 5 star system, 5 stars being great, 1 star being not so great.

1. Christ the Lord is Born Today – Pleased to hear a good acoustic guitar mix, recorded very well. Production on this song is really spot on, the Christmas bells weren’t over used, I think they really helped the song. Vocals are great, harmonies are well placed and the melody is interesting while remaining singable. Lyrics are a traditional rejoicing in our Savior’s birth, glad there’s only 3 verses and didn’t go way traditional with 8-9 verses. Mission accomplished on this song, glad to start this record off on a good note, let’s hope it continues. (4 stars)

2. Hope Has Come – Dang, why did they use that drum sample. It sounds straight out of a Casio keyboard Radio Shack gives away in their business card drawings each month. And not in a cool, retro, “yeah we were trying to get that sound” sort of way. Really any sample but that would have done. Mercifully they stop it at verse 2, now I can get back to seeing if the song is good. The chorus is nice, it’s not terribly interesting, but it’s pleasant and engaging. Here come the group vocals, sounding pretty good at first, wish they would have only sung on the “Alleluia” lines, got a little over bearing there for a bit. The ending to the song is very strange, doesn’t seem to fit the progression or vibe of the song, a little out of left field. (2 stars)

3. Emmanuel, Emmanuel – 3rd song in a row with an acoustic guitar into. Hoping this pattern breaks soon. Like the pianos on this song, strings are borderline over used. Not quite ready to say they are yet, but dangerously close. But overall the production is good. This is quite lyrically jam packed, a lot to get out in the verses. Chorus gives a nice change of pace. I like the melody on the final “Emmanuel”, wish that would have been more of a centerpiece in the chorus. (3 stars)

4. How Sweet the Day – A little disappointed on yet another acoustic guitar intro, but at the same time, the drum sample used is much much better. Verses are nice, lyrics are great and the melody got me interested. Chorus is awesome, great hook. So happy to hear it. Chorus melody isn’t a wild departure in adventurous melodies, but just a good settled hook that isn’t cheesy or straight out of the adult contempo hand book. I’ll listen to this song again happily. My only regret is that there is a bit more let loose on the tag. Would have been nice to get a bit more dynamic and let the song open up. It begged for it. (4.5 stars)

5. Salvation Is Born – Pretty arrangement, good acoustic work, angelic voice. The first song that’s hit you over the face Christmas. I was instantly transported back to my house as a kid hearing my mom listen to Amy Grant Christmas. Just waiting for Take 6 to spin up next. I can’t see this being sung in any setting other than Christmas and as a “special presentation”. Not something a congregation could really enter in to. Not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s a beautiful song. (3 stars)

6. Glory Be to God – Sleigh bells finally! I love me some sleigh bells, seriously. I have no room to critique any Charles Wesley lyrics, so I’ll just say, great lyrics. Viewed through the eyes of a hymnal I say the song is a success. (3.5 stars)

7. Rejoice – Good melody, I appreciate the non-repeating verse sans chorus format. A true Christmas song indeed. Some of the lyrics seem shoe-horned in, especially, “For His heel will bruise the serpent’s head”. Hard to put a poetic polish on that, but that certainly sits in line with a lot of traditional Christmas songs. (3 stars)

8.  We Will Seek You – Showing improvement on the drum loop, good work guys. Great change on the chorus, and the leslie is used on the chorus to great effect. Nice job switching up the arrangement on verse 2. I feel like this chorus could have had a really interesting set of harmonies on it, instead they opted for a pretty straight forward harmony. Straight forward makes sense stylistically for the record, just my more adventurous side crying out for something a bit more colorful. Great song though. (4 stars)

9. Glory to God in the Highest – Everything is too predictable for me, not much of any vocal dynamic and that’s due in part to a pedestrian melody on the chorus. Vocally the entire song is a half whisper. There’s just not a hook here to hold onto. (2 stars)

10. Wonderful Counselor – A nice hook to build around, just wish instrumentally they would have built the chorus more. It’s all very subdued. But overall a good song with a nice simple, powerful hook. (3 stars)

11. The Son of God Came Down – Beautiful song, lyrically brilliant. Love the verses on this song, this is creative response to God’s truth and love. I love seeing a writer’s passion through wrestling of words, I can see it here. (4 stars)

Messiah born so small, asleep in cattle stall

Come to redeem our fall, nailed to a tree

This tiny, helpless child through death would reconcile

The holy God and vile, His grace so free

O come, let us adore 

12. Sleep, Jesus, Sleep – A sweet (I mean sweet in the literal sense, not slang) song, that brings in focus and contrast the fragility of baby Jesus in the flesh with his divine authority and purpose to deliver us. A truly amazing song, not sure I’ve heard this perspective so well communicated in song. Just an amazing song of worship. (5 stars)

Overall:  First let me say, I find it a struggle to lay my personal musical taste aside and critique inside the genre it fits in. So I’m sure some of the things I said were from my personal taste and are just a matter of personal opinion. I tried to avoid it, but it’s hard to avoid completely.

I was really pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this record. I’m sure it will continue to grow on me as well. But almost immediately I could identify a song or two that I’m excited to do for our Christmas service and then a few more that will be in regular rotation just in listening. The production was done at a very high level, only a few things I found to be mis-steps. One thing that wasn’t a problem was over production which is a common problem with this type of worship, so that’s great. I’ll give this record a solid 3.75 stars out of 5. That means go and buy it, you won’t regret it. Certainly one of the best Christmas worship albums I’ve heard recently. It’s worth it just for the last song alone..still blown away by Sleep, Jesus, Sleep…wow.

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