A Greater Song

It has been years since I have bought a single Gospel-oriented CD, but thanks to Shalene who has now earned the honor of being a great DJ (in my opinion at least), I added a new Gospel CD to my collection today.

Paul Baloche’s “A Greater Song”.

What drew me to Paul Baloche was the fact that I had the chance to sing one of his compositions “Your Name” at the church I visited on Shabbat a fortnight ago, and the song has become one of my favorites.

And when Shalene linked the YouTube version of it, I finally found out that Paul Baloche was the composer behind this wonderful song.

Coming from a pretty traditional background where the church only believed in singing traditional hymns, I have for the longest time tried to find good Christian artistes and songs to listen to, but without success.

It’s not that I don’t like traditional hymns. They are lovely in their own way, but it’s hard to identify with some of these old-time hymns. Moreover, some of them are rather heavy, and totally devoid of the joy that comes with worship.

Hence it was quite a great find for me to discover Paul Baloche’s music.

I don’t have much of his past material to compare this album with, but what I can say is this: it’s great!

Of course, I could be biased since it’s the first Gospel CD I have bought after a long while, but I can tell you that when I was deep into contemporary rock and pop in years past, I could pick out hits with just one listen of a new album, and I was seldom wrong.

Anyhow, since I don’t have much experience reviewing Gospel albums, I guess I’ll spare you the agony of reading an amateurish attempt, and dive right into my favorite tracks on the CD.

As you can probably guess by now, “Your Name” is my top favorite. This is followed closely by the first track of the album, “Hosanna”.

Of the rest of the album, I prefer the slower and more reflective numbers — “Because of Your Love”, the title track “A Greater Song”, and “You Have Been So Good”.

If, like me, you haven’t heard of Paul Baloche, this is a great album to start with, since most reviews I have looked up seem to indicate that this is his best work yet.

But don’t just take my word for it, have a listen to “Hosanna” here and judge for yourself.

Shalom Aleichem.