‘In Christ Alone: The Songs of Stuart Townend and Keith Getty’ is a new release from Integrity featuring the best loved hymns of two of the most prolific hymn writers of our times.

There are 16 gems in this album—most of which should be familiar material if you’re a fan of Stuart Townend and the Gettys—like who isn’t, right?!

I mean, they’ve written hymns that have been covered by a host of Christian artists ranging from Philips, Craig & Dean, Newsboys to Kristian Stanfill and Passion and more! Add to that the fact that their songs have consistently topped Christian charts all over the world and expectations soar when you look at this album.

'In Christ Alone: The Songs of Stuart Townend and Keith Getty' – about the Songs

What can I say—this is a treasure trove of worship hymns penned by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty that are probably already prominent in the set-lists all kinds of churches everywhere!

As if that’s not enough, this project also has guest vocals by Tim Hughes and Joanne Hogg apart from Bluegrass Country music legend Alison Krauss!

The album opens with the title track “In Christ Alone” sung by Alison Krauss and Keith & Kristyn Getty. Even after hearing so many different versions of this timeless song over the years, the minimalistic arrangement featured here still manages to sound fresh with the lyrics and the voices standing out (it’s Alison Krauss after all!).

Depending on your denomination and theological beliefs, you may or may not have trouble singing the line “The wrath of God was satisfied”. Barring that, this is a brilliant song and is sure to be playing on ‘repeat mode’.

Joanne Hogg from the Celtic rock band ‘Iona’ and Margaret Becker join Kristyn Getty to sing a powerful arrangement of “Across the Lands”, an infectious hymn of praise and worship that’s totally God focused and congregational.

Stuart Townend leads another of my favorite hymns “The Power of the Cross”—no new arrangement here, it’s the same live recording from a previous project. If there’s ever an award for best Good Friday song, this song would be at the top of the nomination list—it has this uncanny ability to transport me back in time and almost witness the events at Calvary.

Kristyn Getty will forever be one of my favorite singers—her voice always moves me to worship like no one else’s! And it’s no different here when she sings “Speak O Lord”—it’s emotive, anointed and full of vocal artistry!

Stuart Townend returns to sing “Resurrection Hymn (See What a Morning)”—again it’s just an earlier live recording. If “The Power of the Cross” is one of the best Good Friday songs, then surely “See What a Morning” is one of the best Easter songs.

The second verse especially makes me visualize Mary Magdalene peeping into the empty tomb, turning away in tears and then meeting the risen Lord. The art of storytelling in their songwriting is really that good!

The project continues to maintain its lofty standard with Tim Hughes singing “O Church Arise”—another majestic hymn full of the story of God. With his own unique vocal style, Tim manages to make it his own.

Kristyn Getty sings “A Workers Prayer”—a mellow arrangement that captures and brings out the beauty of Kristyn’s voice on this compelling hymn.

“Every Promise” a.k.a. “From the Breaking of the Dawn” features Stuart Townend backed by the same ‘Celtic Country’ arrangement we are already familiar with.

“Holy Spirit Living Breath of God” is sung by Kristyn and continues to sound like gold. This is a wonderfully eloquent prayer to the Holy Spirit that’ll easily belong in the hearts of every Christian worshiper. Learn it now if you haven’t already!

We are reminded of the storytelling skills of Townend and the Gettys once again when Stuart sings “Creation Sings”—a lovely ‘Hallelujah hymn’ with a thanksgiving bent, apart from covering themes like creation, the Cross and the return of Christ.

“Benediction” a.k.a. “May the Peace of God” is the shortest song on this record sung by Kristyn. If your church has the practice of having moments of Benediction, this will probably make more sense to you.

In any case, “Benediction” is a great song of praise and worship with a powerful refrain that can easily fit into a modern worship set list too.

“Gethsemane” is a moving reminder of the horror experienced by our Lord when praying in the Garden before the Passion. It’s certainly another perfect song for Good Friday.

“By Faith” is the song that helped me discover Kristyn a long time ago. And it sounds just as great now as it did then. A unique hymn inspired by Hebrews 11 singing about the assurance and participation we have in our faith journeyed by those who walked in it before us.

Townend’s rendition of “Come People of the Risen King” comes up next. While I personally prefer Kristyn’s version (sorry Stuart!), nothing can take away from the fact that this is a cool, catchy, up-tempo call to worship.

“The Perfect Wisdom of Our God” follows quietly helping us to ponder and meditate on the unmatchable ways of our God. I love these lines especially:

And O the mystery of the Cross
That God should suffer for the lost
So that the fool might shame the wise
And all the glory might go to Christ

The record closes with “Communion Hymn”—another meditative lyric that helps us remain at the Cross with gratitude and worship. It’s such an ideal communion / post-communion song.

Thoughts about the album

After listening to ‘In Christ Alone: The Songs of Stuart Townend and Keith Getty’ a number of times, I do wish they had tried varying the arrangements a lot more—many songs are just re-productions of their existing versions. You end up wondering why buy another record when you have these songs already.

On the other hand, these songs are good enough to stand on their own simply with their lyrical brilliance—so why change the arrangements!

I guess it’s a tough call even though working with a completely different producer might have given this collection a different twist and appeal. 

If by some awful tragedy you haven’t heard these songs before, you’ll discover a magnificent collection of songs that are masterfully written and composed.

If you’re like the rest of us who’ve heard, admired and sung these hymns for years, this project will help you fall in love with them all over again.

So buy it for yourself or gift it to someone—you won’t regret it.

Or you can participate in the giveaway to win a free copy here!

How to enter the giveaway

1. Follow NodeRock on Twitter and retweet this review

2. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can like Node Rock on Facebook and share this review

Two winners will be picked and given a link to download a digital copy of ‘In Christ Alone: The Songs of Stuart Townend and Keith Getty’ for free!

‘Edge of Heaven’ is the first live worship recording by River Valley Church—a ministry based out of Minnesota.

River Valley has previously made three studio projects before this one and is produced by Luke Fredrickson who’s worked with artists like Jeremy Camp.

‘Edge of Heaven’ is a collection of 12 original worship songs performed by their in-house worship leaders who serve across their eight campuses. Many of these songs were apparently written with a focus on specific preaching events planned at River Valley Church for over a year.

'Edge of Heaven': about the songs

‘The church is alive’ is a peppy opener singing about our hope in the Lord. It could have been a better song if not for this bridge:

This is what it sounds like

This is what it looks like

This is what it feels like

When the church is alive

To me, this is just plain wrong. A church that’s alive should not just look, sound and feel like a concert—it has to be much more than that.

‘Do it again’ continues the up-tempo start to the album calling out to God to ‘do it again’—not clear as to what it is that He has to do again though. Take these lines for example:

You got me living again

Would you do it again

Would you do it again

Puzzling, right?

For me, the project hit top gear with the third track, ‘I am healed’—a song that’s particularly meaningful for worship leader Ryan Williams who testifies to singing this song through a long and painful recovery from a severe disc problem in his back.

‘I am healed’ is a very well written, expressive song about healing with one of the most powerful bridges I’ve ever heard. It’s sure to get you singing along again and again and again—trust me, don’t miss this song!

‘All for the One who saved me’ is a classy 6/8 tune that nails some really important themes: inviting the Lord’s Presence, surrender and mission. I enjoyed the lyrics on this one.

‘Your Presence’ is a fervent cry to the Holy Spirit to rest His Presence with us and breathe upon us. The song works well with an uncomplicated arrangement and helps give voice to the longing in all our souls.

The title track ‘Edge of Heaven’ is next singing about the hope we have in Jesus as we wait for Heaven. Another standout song on this album.

‘Joy is coming’ is a well written song about the assurance we have in Christ through the trials we may face.

‘Nothing was the same’ sings about how the Cross has made all things new including us.

‘No wonder (roar of the rugged Cross)’ is a beautiful lyric about the Passion of the Lord, resurrection and salvation. It turns out to be is a terrific song especially for worship during the Lenten season—definitely one of the best tracks in this album!

I loved the third verse especially:

I see redemption

Ravage the grave

The triumph of Heaven

Christ Jesus our King

I assumed ‘Then sings my soul’ is a remake of the hymn ‘How great Thou art’, but it isn’t. Except for the first line in the chorus, which sings ‘Then sings my soul’ in the same melody as the hymn. Everything else is different—frankly, it felt weird. Why would you even do this?!

The album closes with two up-tempo songs ‘God's not done’ and ‘The best is yet to come’.

Here’s the video of ‘I am healed’ to understand how they sound like:

The overall feel of the live recording is quite nice and there’s a genuine sense of community going on here with multiple artists coming together effectively for this project.

The talent is obviously there and the production too is crisp and solid. The slow-tempo songs are especially very good and could easily be used in congregational worship.

What let me down in a few of the songs is the musical style—when I closed my eyes while listening, the arrangements tended to transport me to a club than a worship concert.

But then, if that’s the style that’s working fine at River Valley Church’s eight campuses, who am I to complain!

Album resources

The River Valley website is generously giving away chord charts for all the songs and a graphics pack for free. In fact, there are two versions of the chord chart for each song—one with regular chords and another using the Nashville Number system.

Head over to http://rivervalleyworship.org/ to grab these downloads.

River Valley has also published song tutorial videos at YouTube apart from standard song videos.

If you need backing tracks for these songs, they are available for purchase at MultiTracks.com.

‘Edge of Heaven’ giveaway!

‘Edge of Heaven’ is now available for purchase at all major digital service providers.

However, you can participate to win a free copy here!

How to enter this giveaway

1. Follow NodeRock on Twitter and retweet this review
2. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can like Node Rock on Facebook and share this review

Two winners will be picked and given a link to download a digital copy of ‘Edge of Heaven’ for free!

Tim Hughes is one of the most consistent and influential worship songwriters out there today. I mean, you can just close your eyes and pick up anything that he releases—whether it's a solo project or a collective record with Worship Central.

So a request to review his material is no doubt exciting!

According to Tim, "Pocketful of Faith" is a collection of songs that captures his journey of shifting from his regular church in London to Birmingham where he has been instrumental in planting a new church.

About The Songs

The album opens with the powerful "Here With Me" declaring that God is our help and hope in every time of need—easily one of the best songs on this project.

"Only the Brave" continues these themes further, after which we get to listen to the title track.

"Pocketful of Faith" encourages us to step out in faith now—instead of waiting too long and live in regret later because of missing out on the adventure God has in store for us today. The song is also interestingly arranged starting out with simple piano work and then exploding into an anthemic bridge full on, it's great!

"Symphony" describes the restoration we enjoy because of the love and grace of God.

"Set Apart" from last year's worship central project follows and it sounds just as great as it did there—if you haven't added this song to your master song list by now, please do yourself a favor and do so right away—it's brilliant!

There are more worship goodies—"Arms" is a beautifully crafted song about trusting God and finding rest in Him. "Sky High" celebrates God's majesty and His inexhaustible love.

Two more fine songs from "Set Apart" find a place here—"The Cross Stands" and "The Way". in fact, there are two versions of the latter including a sweet acoustic one.

"Hope and Glory" is a moving intercessory song calling on God's mercy and power to revive us again.

The album closes with "Hallelujah" motivating us to remain in God and worship Him continually.

Must-Have Songs?

"Here With Me", "Hope and Glory", "Set Apart", "Pocketful of Faith", "The Way" and "Arms".

What stands out throughout this project is the heart of the songwriters—especially the willingness to be transparent about their vulnerabilities, fears, joys and worship God in every season.

So is this my favorite Tim Hughes record?

No, but then it'd be a tough task to better a record like "Love Shines Through"—even for Tim!

However, this project does deliver on what Tim does best—singable church-friendly songs, many of which should easily enter set-lists of worship leaders worldwide.

And Now, For The Giveaway!

Leave a comment below (don't forget to fill in your email-ID) listing your favorite songs written by Tim Hughes for a chance to win a digital copy of "Pocketful of Faith"—there will be two winners.

This giveaway is over.