For an album with a profoundly generic stock-image cover, Waterfalls is all about distinctiveness. This is an album where every track has an individual identity. From song construction to instrumental design, it’s as if the good people at Vineyard St Albans have gone out of their way to create an album that never sounds repetitive – for which I hope they will be rewarded in heaven.
Waterfalls sports all the superb production values we have come to expect from live worship recordings. The musicianship here is impeccable. Lyrically, it suffers from the contemporary malaise of unimaginative imagery and over-reliance on verbal crutches of ‘glory’ and ‘your name’, but not to the extent that this distracts.
There’s a mutedly kooky nod to the likes of Rend Collective (‘O Great Light’) and am I crazy to hear a touch of the Mumford (And Sons, rather than John and Eleanor) on ‘Bring Me Back’? Perhaps. But lovers of soulful singer-songwriters and slick pop worship alike will find something to love here.
JONTY LANGLEY is a journalist and former DJ
