Words: Kofo Baptist
Friday, 7 August 2009
I'm listening to an advance review copy of Leeland's new contemporary Christian music album Love Is On The Move out August 25 and I must say, the progressive Christian rock band fronted by Leeland Mooring, have come quite a mile since their last album Opposite Way.
The band launched onto the scene in 2004 and immediately stood out for their progressive Brit rock style which was very often compared to the likes of Coldplay, Keane and Travis. With two albums under their belt, GRAMMY and Dove award nominations and a reputation for their gripping worshipful rock, Leeland return with their third album bringing with it passion, conviction, raw honesty and a lot of growth.
Leeland open strong with The Door, a refreshing rock-tinged number filled with searing guitar leads and a catchy chorus that will no doubt influence a generation of worshippers. With beautiful lyrics that capture what it means to worship Jesus, Leeland sing with passion about the greatest love of all. "Jesus you're the only one for me, there's no way I'm leaving you."Follow You featuring Brandon Heath is a breathtakingly beautiful song, definitely tailor-made for radio success. Reinforcing the need to be salt and light in the world through love, social action and justice, Heath sings, "When I was dead you gave me life, how could I not give it away so freely," to which Leeland responds, "I'll follow you into the homes of the broken."
There's a sort of admonition on the track, Pure Bride, reminding listeners of the second coming, while the energetic New Creation is an unadulterated worship song with a British-rock feel to it.
Weak Man, produced by award-winning producer Ed Cash, really touched my heart. In this energy-filled worship song, Leeland sing: "Jesus, give me your heart, let there be a death in me. I'll make room for all that you are, give me your heart."
The big let down for me though was the title track Love Is On The Move that failed to live up to the hype. Sounding a bit like Enya, it was just a little too sombre for me and almost put me right to sleep.
Overall, this is a pretty good album from Leeland, although there were one or two tracks that didn't feel so easy to digest. Saying that, let's not forget that Leeland are an amazing band and the album has been brilliantly produced with some incredibly intimate and passionate songs that shows just how much they have matured musically as a group, creatively as songwriters and spiritually as a band with a penchant for God-pleasing worship.
Watch lead singer of Leeland, Leeland Mooring and his brother Jack Mooring (backing vocals, keyboard), perform an exclusive acoustic version of Follow You from their new album for CCM.
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written by amy , August 07, 2009
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written by Scott Hicks , January 08, 2010
His encouraging words during "Lift your eyes up" is a reference to Psalms, where David reminds us to look to the hills, where our help comes.
Overall the album was so good, I had never heard of Leeland prior to the radio release of "Follow You" but quickly bought and now enjoy their other two albums.
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