Delirious

My Soul Sings

How do you say goodbye to one of CCM's biggest and most loved bands? Well aside from the inevitable hits collections and rarities compilations what else can a band do? Delirious obviously pondered the question and decided that they wanted their parting shot to be a reminder of the place they were the most at home: on stage in front of a whole crowd of people worshipping. And if it's crowds of worshippers you're looking for then you probably have a good chance of finding them amongst the 200 000 members of G12 church in Bogota, Columbia. Unfortunately they could only squeeze 10 000 of them into the venue for this album, but they provide a suitably sized choir and sending off committee for the band. Now I should point out that this is not the final concert and we may yet see another album when that final concert is performed later this year, but the band did produce this album with the mind that it could be their last word on all things musical and the effort put in shows that.

Crammed onto the CD is 80 minutes of classic Delirious. The song list is understandably more focussed on the last studio album (Kingdom of comfort), but we still get "Rain down", "God's romance", "Bliss", "History Maker", "Deeper", and "Majesty" as a reminder of the rich vein of music they've mined. The DVD too is packed to the brim featuring some different songs to the CD and shot with great attention to all the finer details of the concert. Watching the band in action it's once again clear just how professional an act they are, all the time spent together has shaped them into a band that flows together tightly, moving from one song to another without breaking a quaver, something that most musicians would appreciate. To think that just more than 15 years ago they were starting out playing at their "Cutting Edge" events. Today their songs are sung in churches all over the world and they're to be admired for taking God seriously when He called them into music full time, especially since the first few years were tough going. Sadly we're not going to see the band perform again down here so this is probably as close as we'll get to seeing Martin Smith decked out in a robe and crown of modern distractions (Ipods and cell phones included) sitting on a throne and acting out the meaning of the song "Kingdom of comfort".

As the final year of the band winds down and everybody who's enjoyed the music braces themselves for the inevitable this album serves as a snapshot of who they were and what made them special. For some it was the impressive rock numbers, for others the worship songs they wrote and then there are some, like myself, for whom the band were an example that the two can co exist and still be used by God. The only question that remains is who will fill the gap once they're all done?

Previous Albums: "Now is the time", "Access:d", "Kingdom of Comfort"

Similar to: Tree63, Leeland, Matt Papa.

Random pondering: On the back cover the band are all posed in typical cover style poses and you'll notice that only lead singer Martin has any hair on top of his head. Which makes one wonder if his head is perhaps not as conducive to being shaved as the others or if they're just going bald a bit prematurely...