- Here I Am
- Healing Rain
- Live Forever
- Hang On
- Fly to the Moon
- Human Spark
- We Can't Wait Any Longer
- I Am Love
- Bridge over Troubled Water
- Eagles Fly
- All I Want
It's not as if Michael W. Smith has been lying low; releasing a new album every year since 1998, he's busier than most recording artists. But the much-anticipated
Expectations are high for this album, but don't look for a radical departure. You might say that Smitty has wisely chosen to bridge the gap between his successful forays into worship music and his pop legacy. Three of the album's stronger tracks feature the lyricism of Delirious' Smith, giving songs like "Here I Am" a decidedly more vertical focus: "Here I come to Your threshing floor where the angels fear to tread/I'm waiting here for the King of love and to hold the hands that bled." Meshing Smith's melodic pop/rock with the British style of Coldplay and Delirious, this one's bound to be the follow-up single to the successful title track, a soaring and restorative take on familiar Smith balladry like "There She Stands" and "Everybody Free." There's also "All I Want," a closing atmospheric prayer that's somewhat dark sounding, yet strangely comforting.
Smitty has been quoted as saying he thinks people might be surprised by some of the new album. Yes, if by "surprise" he means underwhelm.
The biggest drawback is the album relies too heavily on conventional ballads, and not really the big jaw-dropping kind that Smith is known for. Written with Sorensen as a response to
The two liveliest tracks come back to back in the middle of the album, and they couldn't be any more different. "Hang On" is an infectious funky playout groove, but it's also got some of the most trite lyrics in a Smith song to date: "Hang on, hang on/Can you hear me, I'm gonna say it again/Hang on, hang on/Never giving up, no, never giving in." This is undoubtedly intended to be a simple sing-along for concerts, but like a bad summer movie script, you have to wonder how three talented songwriters can come up with something so lame. Now flip a 180 and check out "Fly to the Moon," a stunning track about letting kids grow up and pursue their dreams. Shifting feel throughout with a driving 6/4 time piano riff, it's a nod to the progressive '80s pop/rock of The Police and Genesis, not to mention Smitty at the height of his career. For a moment, he ditches the middle-aged pop crooner persona and we catch a glimpse of the inventive keyboard wizard from
Speaking as a critic, this isn't Smith's most original stuff, but it's admittedly still well produced, enjoyable, and meaningful—hard to imagine him making a bad pop record. But as a fan, while it's great to hear Smitty return to the pop/rock that made him famous, this is