- The Only Hand You Need
- Great Big Problem
- Well Pleased
- I Am Love
- Worth It All
- Can't Let Go
- Through My Eyes
- It's You
- Grand Canyon
- Take a Chance with Me
- Come Away with Me
- Listen
For eight years, Christian popsters FFH have been making albums left and right. It only seems like yesterday when the vocal foursome released its breakthrough debut,
But more so than the recognition, through the years the primary emphases of FFH's music have been on worship, ministry and evangelism. It's a deliberate departure from this focus that makes their sixth album,
But don't expect any prophetic, Mount Sinai experiences. With such a concept, one would hope that songwriters Jeromy Diebler and Michael Boggs (plus the occasional hired guns) would eloquently delve into some of the rich qualities of God—his paternal care, his patience, his wrath, his jealousy, his intolerance for sin, his atoning grace—but all we get is passing mentions of these faculties, or merely feel-good generalities about who he is. Much like the majority of the group's music, the writing is personable, inspirational and easily digestible, but overall patently uncomplicated. The piano-driven first single "Worth It All" is a prime illustration of this: "You are mine, you are loved / You have always been thought of / When you hurt I feel it every time."
It's understood that FFH is trying to motivate discouraged believers and those who otherwise wouldn't respond to the grandiloquence of a sermon. However, in trying to simplify the way God communicates with his people, some of their musings verge on mere reductionism. For example, "Great Big Problem" recalls Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Want to Be" for its strong pop/rock basis, but lyrically it takes a bafflingly anthropomorphic view of God, as if his existence were flawed and full of issues and misgivings, like ours: "I've got a great big problem / You can't ever get to the bottom of / My love, no matter what you do / I can't let you go. . . If you could only see / How this is killing me / You'd come back to me / I would set you free."
If anything, the overarching theme of the disc is one that highlights God's constant chasing after us, and his unwillingness to leave us. In this vein, "Grand Canyon" is perhaps the best-written track on the album, and one of the few ballads that comprise the set. It never reaches the grand proportions of earlier FFH anthems, but it's otherwise satisfying: "I wish that I could stop the bleeding / But you won't, you won't let it show / I can't wrestle with your demons if you don't let me see them."
On another positive note,
There's no denying FFH is trying to break out of their shell, and it's highly commendable for them to try something different and outside of their comfort zone. Equally commendable is their strong ministry intentions, undoubtedly the main catalyst for fashioning an album of this nature. But the end results still could've been more than what they actually are. God songs are not easy to write, especially when one runs the risk of sounding more human than divine in doing so.