- You Invite Me In
- Lift Up Your Head
- You're Not Alone
- Treasure
- Show Me What It Means
- Deeper
- The River
- The New Song We Sing
- Who Is Like You
- Draw Me Nearer
- You're Not Alone (acoustic)
Meredith Andrews leads a long line of young female artists entering the national Christian music scene in 2008, though she has the benefit of a hefty resume. The Liberty University graduate has long served as a worship leader—as a teen, during her college years, and presently at Chicago's Harvest Bible Chapel. She's already released an independent project and previously toured with Truth; now she's set to open for Aaron Shust on his first headlining tour.
Newly signed to Word Records, Andrews' national debut is intended as an invitation to experience God through worship and a relationship with him; hence
For sure, Andrews remains rooted in worshipful pop, as if Jaci Velasquez or Britt Nicole went the way of Chris Tomlin (especially "Lift Up Your Head"). Ranging between upbeat rockers ("The New Song We Sing") and balladry ("Treasure"), the songs are generally congregational friendly, but often fall prey to formula. The vaguely Coldplay-ish "Who Is Like You," for example, merely strings together a series of phrases from modern worship and scripture: "Who is like You Lord/Who was and is and is to come/Forever worshiped and adored/We pour our hearts out here before Your throne/This is for You alone."
Andrews brings a lot to the scene as a worship leader, a songwriter, and a terrific vocalist (check out "Draw Me Nearer" and the acoustic version of "You're Not Alone," where her pipes ring out loud and clear with nothing but piano to compete with.) But there's a feeling with this album that she's merely singing what's worked on so many other worship projects before her—it simply doesn't bring enough freshness to the genre musically or lyrically. As such,