Description
This is Your Time is the ninth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, and keyboardist Michael W. Smith, released on Reunion Records in 1999. The album was recorded at Deer Valley Studios in Franklin, Tennessee; with Bryan Lenox and Michael W. Smith producing.
Coming off last year’s acclaimed Live the Life and busy with his growing record label, Michael W. Smith deserves some down time. But alas, Smith is a restless creative: He never seems to tire of cranking out well-crafted pop or encouraging his younger listeners. To that end, This Is Your Time picks up where Live the Life left off, exploring similar themes of seize-the-day spiritual urgency.
The title track – Smith’s meditation on the Littleton, Colo., tragedy – illustrates how saying yes to God can uphold life in the face of death, or rescue the sin-weary from walking death (“This is your time/ This is your dance/ Live every moment, leave nothing to chance”). Smith moves toward an all-encompassing musical scope as well; the gentle acoustic guitar intro swells into orchestrated waves before the song fades on the sound of a single bagpiper. This Is Your Time unfolds in movements that could be characterized as mini-sets.
After a Celtic-flavored curtain-raiser comes a trio of infectious pop ditties («Hey You, It’s Me», «Worth It All», «I Will Be Your Friend»). Then This Is Your Time ushers in grander, anthem-like peaks and valleys – and by cut eight, Smith gets wild, rocking out on «Reach Out to Me» and «I Still Have the Dream». Then there’s «I’m Gone», a funky love song that can barely contain itself, what with its flirtatious whistling. Fun touches like that adorn This Is Your Time, signaling that for all its pop majesty, this is not a disc to be taken too seriously.
Just as the poet Walt Whitman once concluded, “I contain multitudes,” This Is Your Time is serious and silly, strong and sensitive. And sometimes, it moves best by saying nothing at all. «Cassie» closes the album as it began, instrumentally. This reworking of the title theme, a tribute to Littleton victim Cassie Bernall, illustrates Smith’s undeniable talent for yanking heartstrings in all the right places. [Lou Carlozo, CCM, December 1999]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/this-is-your-time/1458810589)
CD tracklist:
01. Rince Dé – 1:30
02. Hey You It’s Me – 4:03
03. Worth It All – 4:03
04. I Will Be Your Friend – 3:19
05. This Is Your Time – 4:29
06. I Will Carry You – 5:04
07. She Walks With Me – 3:42
08. Reach Out To Me – 3:59
09. I Still Have The Dream – 4:20
10. I’m Gone – 4:31
11. Anna – 4:16
12. Everybody Free – 4:43
13. This Is Your Time (Reprise) – 2:24
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Reunion Records.
The December 1999 issue of CCM Magazine featured a cover story on Michael W. Smith.
A full-page advertisement for Michael W. Smith’s This is Your Time was featured in the December 1999 issue of CCM Magazine.
“I rewrote the end of the song with bagpipes… kind of a last minute thing. I was laying in bed at 3 o’clock in the morning and I heard bagpipes. I played it for Cassie’s Mom and Dad and Misty [Cassie’s Mom] said, “You’re not going to believe this but Cassie’s favorite instrument was bagpipes.”
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