Organic Family Hymnal

Description

Organic Family Hymnal is the debut album by the Irish folk-rock worship combo Rend Collective, released in the UK on Survivor Records in 2010, and on Integrity Music in the US. The album was recorded at Castlewellan Castle outside of Belfast, Northern Ireland; and was mixed by Sam Gibson.

In case you haven’t yet heard this collective are a group of 15 or so young people with a singular vision, “to make journey music that talks from the heart and tries to follow God’s heart”. They seek to make worship music “grown in a natural environment without the use of nasty pesticides”. This, the collective’s first record label release, features re-recordings of songs originally released on two independent EPs and wonderful they are too. The songs presented here range from brass and piano filled sing-a-longs such as the infectious «Exalt» to the simple bucolic charm of «Love Divine» and «God Is Near». Recorded at Castlewellan Castle and mixed by Sam Gibson, who has worked with big names including Delirious?, the album’s clean, radio friendly production is sure to win it plenty of airplay. Particular standouts are American worship radical David Crowder joining with the collective on «Faithful» and the pounding «Thine Be The Glory» (not the old hymn) which moves confidently into rock territory – perhaps betraying Sam’s influence at the controls. Lyrically the group skilfully manage to express the joy of a deep personal relationship with God without falling into cliché and create a rousing modern worship album. Expect to hear a lot more about this exciting ensemble in 2010 and beyond. [Peter Timmis, Cross Rhythms, January 2010]

Just like CCM is more defined by lyrics than musical elements, the same goes for praise & worship music. And yes, it’s already been several years since I’ve heard publicists make distinctions between CCM and P & W. If you want to split the difference and say that P & W is a subset of CCM, that’s reasonable, too. Anyway, new co-ed English band Rend Collective Experiment praise, and they worship. And they do it with a distinctly British air. Depending upon the picture, there is anywhere from 6 to 11 of them. Maybe more? Add the school choir they use on occasion and instrumentalists not listed among their singers, and it is definitely more.

A rich sound? Yes, even without the school kids (which is most of the time). Horns, classical strings, rock band instruments and piano – plus more I may be missing – mingle to form a sound not dissimilar to North American indie darlings The Arcade Fire and Bright Eyes. RCE use the elements as well to recall 1960s-70s mainstream pop from their island homeland (I’m thinking certain Petula Clark and Dusty Springfield records, Chad & Jeremy and Peter & Gordon, too), but with an often softly busy production to complement their strong, sometimes nearly shouty vocals. There is as much here for congregational singing as there is for listening to a quirky, slightly rambling pop album, like Danielson Famile with smoother vocals and melodies or The Polyphonic Spree without the silly robes and with more sacred lyrics.

Lyrically, they can derive inspiration from classic hymnody, but not in the way Chris Tomlin sometimes take a public domain oldie and folds his own bridge into it. Like their album title proclaims, they go on about things more… organically. That is to say, they incorporate the older vocabulary of their praising & worshiping fore-bearers into their own verbiage that speaks some greater theological/doctrinal insight than some of their competition (though these folks don’t seem the types that would view anyone as that). When they go on about “God’s dreams,” I get a mite leery, but otherwise, they go at their ministerially musical work with a keenness of focus that newbies to the field would do well to draw inspiration from.

Though now only a U.K. release, Organic Family Hymnal is set for U.S. release later this year. I predict it will either make an immediate splash or its songs will seep their way into church song lists over the course of years, as seemed to happen with the more enduring work of RCE’s predecessors in rocky Brit P & W, Delirious. With their refreshing approach on so many levels and a peculiar mix of friendliness and mystery about their, ahem, collective persona, merely ignoring RCE doesn’t seem to be an option. [Jamie Lee Rake, The Phantom Tollbooth, 2010]

> iTunes

CD tracklist:

01. Come On – 2:21
02. Faithful – 4:57
03. Movements – 3:16
04. You Bled – 4:50
05. Broken Bread – 5:03
06. Exalt – 5:37
07. God Is Near – 5:27
08. Above Nothing Else – 6:35
09. Too Much – 4:20
10. You Are Love – 3:26
11. Thine Be The Glory – 4:27
12. Love Divine – 6:33
13. Find Your Kindness – 4:09

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