Exodus

Description

Exodus is a multi-artist praise & worship collaborative project released on Rocketown Records in May 1998.

The album won Gospel Music Association’s Dove Award in the category Special Event Album of the Year at the 30th Annual Dove Awards, March 24, 1999.

One of the most eagerly awaited projects of the year, this, under the production arm of Michael W Smith, brings a number of top line CCM performers like DC Talk, Third Day, Sixpence None The Richer, Jars of Clay, Cindy Morgan and Michael himself to the altar of worship. Gradually down the years the gap between artist-orientated ‘performance’ songs and worship music has ended, and this superlative collection will attack further that erroneous idea that worship music recordings must feature a congregation and a ‘worship leader’. Here are songs directed to our Lord but written with all the songwriting craft and executed with all the production skill associated with platinum selling CCM. There are numerous glorious musical moments, DC Talk singing a haunting anthem «My Will» and possibly showing in its acoustic-pop rock lilt that there will be another stylistic shift when ‘Supernatural’ comes out; Third Day showing that you can still be heavy and give praise to God; Sixpence None The Richer as wistfully haunting as ever, and Cindy Morgan sounding a little like Enya on a Celtic-style song. Equally impressive are the songs’ performances by the lesser known artists. Chris Rice offers a deft acoustic song and the Katinas bring in tight R&B harmonies. Does it work as worship? I think so, and I can’t wait to introduce the worship group at my church to some of the songs here. They may not be able to get close to the exemplary performances here, but good songs are good songs. [Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms, December 1998]

I think most modern “praise and worship” music is a tacky American cultural thing. I was raised a snob, you see, in the highest of high church environments. Ours was not a church where one waved one’s hands in the air during Sunday Service, singing “Our God Reigns,” and it was our business as youngsters to scoff at those that did so.

I’m over that, mostly. I must admit, however, (with the sincerest of apologies) that I still get my own private yucks when certain individuals in my church get what I consider to be entirely too animated during our weekly rendition of «Hosanna» or some other danceable tune. A few years in and out of evangelical circles has taught me to appreciate different forms of worship. However, in the interest of full disclosure, when I saw this latest project from the capable Michael W. Smith, what attracted me was the very cool Jimmy A. penned illustration on its cover (his artistic renditions inside, of each band on the project are priceless).

Despite all my big talk, I must admit to being a closet Smitty (don’t you just gag when people call him that) fan, so the opening track, «Exodus» immediately caught my ears, it’s in the vein of a lot of the instrumentals on his most recent record, Live the Life. By mid number, I was overwhelmed with emotion at the beauty of his keyboard work and the haunting accompaniments. In other words, it got, and kept my attention. I kept listening and was pleasantly surprised by the new DC Talk cut which came up next. Entitled «My Will», the lyrics hit me right where it hurts:

Complexity haunts me, for I am two men
Entrenched in a battle that I’ll never win
My discipline fails me, my knowledge it fools me
You are my shelter, all the strength that I need.

Jars of Clay unfortunately left me with a bad taste in my mouth – how could a new band with such promise fall so flat, and yet people be so oblivious? The track is so-so, kind of sappy. I guess not every tune on a various artists album is going to be exceptional. The next one, however, most definitely fits that description. Leigh Bingham-Nash’s vocals ring out clearly, in Sixpence None the Richer’s adaptation of an old Celtic prayer:

My heart is as dark as the soil
Sodden with winter rains.
My soul is as heavy as the peat
Freshly dug from the bog.

Oh, people! Talk about a word picture! Can’t you just see the beauty of Ireland?

Help me open my heart
To you oh Jesus
It’s what I long to do.

It’s simple and childlike, and I love that in a worship song.

Now, you’d never have told me I’d sit bolt upright and go “Wow!” over a Cindy Morgan tune, but her very ethereal «Make Us One» is breathtaking, if not overly musically complex. Chris Rice chips in with an adaptation of a popular hymn I used to know (“What can wash my sins away? Nothing but the blood of Jesus”), setting it in his trademark acoustically based vein. The relatively new “guy-group” The Katinas also do a great job of a favorite of mine «Draw Us Close».

You’re all I want
You’re all I ever needed
Help me to know you are near.

I feel like I’m sitting in the cavernous Willow Creek auditorium, watching those very words up on the screen. The thought amuses me.

Third Day hikes up the intensity level, with the MWS-penned version of the “Agnus Dei,” which certainly inspires. I respect this band a lot, I find them to be very straightforward, simple and satisfying, like a meal at your favorite diner. Hearing them speak at the Cornerstone festival this year really impressed me. Crystal Lewis’s rendition of the Sunday Morning Special «Salvation Belongs to our God» is fine. Very nice. And, if Michael W. Smith (I can’t bring myself to use that awful nickname again) hadn’t just put out a fabulous project with lots of new material, I might have been disappointed that his entry on the record was a cover of the Rich Mullins classic «I See You». But, hey – it’s a nice gesture to the late songwriter, and he does it well.

So if I’ve left you a tad perplexed with my ramblings, and are unsure exactly what my feelings are on the project, let’s recap: I like it a lot, almost without exception. I think it’s one of the best modern worship compilations I’ve heard. Artistically, it stands head and shoulders above the recent Maranatha/Integrity Music type offerings, it’s genuine, it pleases me and actually points me to God, which is the intention, I suppose. [Dave Landsel, The Phantom Tollbooth, 9/10/98]

> iTunes (https://music.apple.com/us/album/exodus/6669001)

CD tracklist:

01. Michael W. Smith – Exodus – 5:32
02. DC Talk – My Will – 5:50
03. Jars of Clay – Needful Hands – 3:58
04. Sixpence None The Richer – Brighten My Heart – 4:38
05. Cindy Morgan – Make Us One – 3:50
06. Chris Rice – Nothin’ – 2:51
07. The Katinas – Draw Me Close – 5:08
08. Third Day – Agnus Dei – 5:02
09. Crystal Lewis – Salvation Belongs To Our God – 4:16
10. Michael W. Smith – I See You – 6:30

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Rocketown Records. Re-issued in 2004, offering all the original recordings plus three new tracks from newcomers Nirva – “Jesus’ Blood”, Taylor Sorensen (feat. Martin Smith) – “Sing (Or The Rocks Will Get To)”, and Robbie Seay Band – “Hallelujah God Is Near”.

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A full-page advertisement for Rocketown Records’ multi-artist project Exodus was featured on the back cover of the May 1998 issue of CCM Magazine.

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