Rachel S. Yoo, review of Caedmon's Call "In the Company of Angels: The World Will Sing"

In the fall of 2002 Caedmon’s Call released the first of two worship cds called “In the Company of Angels: A Call to Worship” to promote a sense of community and extend the work they were already doing in their local Houston church. Over three years later, the band created their new sequel album called “In the Company of Angels: The World Will Sing”. Despite the fact that there are aspects of a worship cd that vary from than an album with different motivations, music is music. Worship, as an expression of praising God, can look very different for each individual, but there are fundamental elements of any music that make it artful and more specifically, aspects of worship music that make it purposeful.


From reading the song descriptions on the band’s website, it seems that the songwriters have given high priority to the role of community, worship, and the church. The lyrics of the record are a combination of original lyrics, Biblical words and altered ancient hymns. Most of the words on are intentional and thoughtfully considered, directing the listener to the gospel of grace or understanding the merciful, persistent character of God.

 

“Draw Me Nearer” helps the listener understand how Jesus draws failures through His mercy, love, forgiveness, and compassion. Psalm-based lyrics like “we give thanks to you oh God for your name is near” (psalm 75) in “We Give Thanks” remind us of Biblical truth in attributing glory to God in all things. For the title track “Sing His Love”, an ancient Chinese text was altered and dressed in music with hopes to be sung by Christians in the future as it is now.  Unfortunately, the off-beat folk drums and strumming pattern with pop vocal style stamps this tune as one of the late 90s and do not give it a timeless appeal.


Caedmon’s Call has maintained some of its distinct characteristics on “The World Will Sing”. The clear, approachable vocals of Danielle Young in “Rest Upon Us” and Garett Buell’s melting pot of auxiliary percussion in “Fellowship” gives this album a Caedmon’s Call trademark. However, in contrast to one of CC’s early songs “Close of Autumn” (Just Don’t Want Coffee), the plethora of percussion instruments in “Be Merciful to Me” sets the rhythm in a way that distracts from the sweet tones of Danielle Young’s vocals, generating an overall muddy experience.

In the past ten years, the band's style has grown more and more over-produced in a way that has lost its charisma and made it more generic. The best songs on the album “Rest Upon Us” and “Fellowship” are less complex which make it more inviting for the listener to engage. It takes less effort to hear “Lord come walk with me ‘till my heart believes all the bounties that your grace can bring.” The udu tastefully compliments the vocals, enhancing the overall experience of the song. Likewise, in “Fellowship” the percussion pushes the melody along and generates a sensation that inspires the listener to sing.


The idea of a worship cd can be a controversial one, as it triggers the question, “what do you mean by worship”? One can listen to a cd alone in a car which smacks  of worship, but may not truly be the act of glorifying God. Lead vocalist Cliff Young has shared his thoughts on their website about the difference between emotions and true worship: "Rich [Mullins] used to talk about how people would come up to him after concerts and say, ‘Wow! The Holy Spirit really moved at that certain point in the song,’ and Rich would respond by saying, ‘No actually, that’s where the kick drum and the bass came in.’ It’s easy to mistake energy and emotion for worship." If the band’s intention is to promote community through true worship, it might be more useful to create a resource cd with teachable chords, melodies and bass lines for church music leaders to learn.  What role do worship albums truly have? 

* Share the word about the new album to hear 5 Sneak Preview tracks.
* Visit the official Caedmon’s Call site.
* Buy “In the Company of Angels: The World Will Sing” at Amazon.

Comments

[Foolish Sage]

This is tough to say, because like Glenn and perhaps some others of CGO, I'm friends with some of the CC band members, but on the whole I have to agree with you, Rachel. I respect these guys (and gal!) greatly; much of their music remains my favorite listens and moves me deeply. However, ITCOA2 falls short for me, overall.

Over the last few years I've felt like I've been witnessing a train wreck in slow motion as the CCM monster gobbles up Caedmons and spits it out. Share the Well was an amazing attempt to break that mold, but it performed dismally commercially. And so Caedmons was ordered by its record company to return to the mold. It's a nice little myth that ITCOA was planned to be a two-parter all along, but that simply isn't true. The band did not want to do another "here's another worship album" album. They were forced to. One band member told me last year that he personally wanted as little to do with this album as he could get away with.

While "The World Will Sing" is better than most CCM, and at its finest moments (the Danielle songs and Andy Osenga's solo) it skyrockets above the mold, it is nothing like what we know Caedmons is capable of producing. The saddest thing is that it succeeds neither as a Caedmons album nor as a worship album. In the latter case, with a couple of exceptions, the songs would be difficult to adapt for congregational singing.

I would plead with Caedmons fans not to judge them on the basis of this album. Those of you who know and love them, join me in pressing them to break back out of the CCM mold. To be the daring, innovative band that once produced Just Don't Want Coffee, Self Titled, and Forty Acres...and recently gave us the amazing and under-appreciated Share the Well.

[wrench]

Stellar review Rachel. CC has great hearts, but sometimes the christian music industry makes good muscians do weird things.

[John Mark]

Great review. It's funny, to me all popular "worship"/"Christian" music sounds the same. Like when I stumble across the Christian radio station, I can tell what it is even if I can't hear the vocals. Hopefully Caedmon's will have some original stuff for us.

[Allison]

I agree with the above commenters, and I especially echo Foolish Sage's remarks about how Caedmons' used break from the CCM mold, and now, they sound like every other mass-produced (or not so mass produced) worship album. It makes me sad. Derek's "Open Letter" comes to mind...

What struck me most about this album was that nothing really struck me at all (unlike previous CC albums). Nothing was really that creative or interesting. Sure, Garrett's percussion was cool and the instrumentation/vocals, etc. were top-notch as always, but there seemed to be no creative juices or inspiration to the album. It is, in a word, "blah." And not that original. "Rest Upon Us" was written by Laura Story (who is just amazing, I might add), the cool ancient Chinese hymn was previously recorded and set to new music on "Beams of Heaven: Indelible Grace IV" and though I'm sure all the songs were written with good intent they just seemed mostly cliched.

With the subtitle "The World Will Sing," I suppose I was hoping for a little more "Share the Well" flavor. Maybe an Indian chours? An Ecuadorian hymn? I was sorely disappointed. And my husband and I listened to this in the context of singing in congregational worship, and well, there just weren't any songs on there that seem worthy of adding to the list.

I will now go console myself with my new Eric Peters' CD "Scarce," of which everyone should partake. (It is not worship music of any kind, but it is very, very good music.)

[Allison]

After reading Glenn's interviews with CC I wanted to add to my above comments. I realize that the overall tone of my post was negative, and for that I apologize.

Caedmon's has taken risks in their musical repetoire, and though some may not be to my liking, I have to applaud them in their efforts to encourage the body and continually work to write, record, and tour for over 10 years, through multiple band member changes and additions, and all with the desire to see God increasingly glorified and worshipped rightly in our churches, in our lives, and around the world.

I realize that in order for albums like "Share the Well" to reach larger audiences, some compromises have to be made. And ITCOA2 is a very worshipful album and will probably appeal to mass audiences. I honestly hope it does well, and that through it listeners will discover more of their work. I have been a longtime fan (10 years this month, I believe) and I suppose I was initially disappointed at what I felt was a "sell-out" but now realize (from the band) that it was something that not even the artists themselves were fully into.

Which suggests a question related to the one Rachel originally asked (what is the role of the "worship album"): What is the role of the CCM industry if it pushes artists' into a mold they don't want to necessarily fill, epsecially in the case of making more "worship albums"? Is it really promoting Christ or just seeking a good marketing niche? Are "worship albums" really only out there because they sell well? And though Caedmon's has done a GREAT job of writing and compiling original or unique hymns and spiritual songs for ITCOA2, why do record companies push some artists to re-record songs already recorded by other artists multiple times in the past 5 years? (Ex: How many different versions of "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" do we really need?)