Music Review: We Cry Out - The Worship Project by Jeremy Camp

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Individually, there are some good songs of worship

Cons: The repetitive nature of the lyrics and music makes all the songs run together

The Bottom Line:

Like most of the songs

Like the CD better with

More variety

We Cry Out, We Cry Out, We Cry Out Repetitively

When I heard that Jeremy Camp was coming out with another worship CD, I was excited.  His original worship CD is my favorite of his releases.  Naturally, I pre-ordered We Cry Out and rushed out to pick it up on release day.  So far, I've been underwhelmed.  The parts of the CD aren't bad, but they don't come together for a good whole.

When it comes to music, I like variety.  Otherwise, my ear just tunes the CD out.  This CD pretty much consists of pop/rock heavy on the electric guitar.  Tempos are pretty much upbeat.  It's not that it sounds bad, it's just that there is little to distinguish one song from the next.

The lyrics fall into the same boat.  Worship songs as a whole can be more repetitive than most songs, but the ones here seem to be worse than normal.  Often, the chorus seems to be a couple lines repeated with a word or two changed.  The worst of the lot is "Everlasting God."  The chorus is one line repeated over and over, and the only verse doesn't add much variety to the mix.

As bad as this sounds, the songs are fine on their own.  They aren't bad, and mixed in with other stuff, they actually sound good.  But it's when you listen to them straight through that you begin to see the problem.

The songs are a mix of covers by well known worship writers and Jeremy's original songs.  The disc opens with "Jesus Saves," a cover of a Tim Hughes song.  And it's a great example of what I was just talking about.  The song celebrates the salvation found in Jesus, and the verses are a great reflection on that.  But then you get to the chorus.  "Shout it out/To let all the world know that Jesus saves/Raise a shout/To let all the world know that Jesus saves."  I could actually picture myself getting caught up in the moment singing this song, but couples with the rest, that chorus gets annoying.

The one cover on here I recognized right off the bat was "Mighty to Save."  I've sung this one multiple times in church, and I do like it despite the repetition.  Again, the song is strong on the guitars as Jeremy sings of the wonders of God saving us.

"The Way" is one of Jeremy Camp's original songs on here and looks at creation and how it points of God.  This song actually makes very good use of the keyboard to providing a haunting counter melody on the verses before the guitar takes over on the chorus.

Jeremy also wrote the title track.  "We Cry Out" jumps off from the idea of creation proclaiming God's glory to talk about how we have even more reason to cry out to God because of all he has done for us.  Again, it's heavy on the drums and guitar, but it does have a very catchy melody.

"Unrestrained" is a slower song without truly slowing things down.  This is a song of surrender, praying to not hold back anything from God.  While this song is definitely guitar based, the keyboard in the background certainly makes for a nice touch.

My favorite track here is a cover of Matt and Beth Redman's "You Never Let Go." It borrows heavily from the Psalms for it's lyrics as it talks about trusting God in the middle of the trials of life.  I like the fact that the chorus talks about God holding us through the highs and lows of life.  I so often only focus on God during the hard times, and I need that reminder.

As you can see, there are some great individual songs on We Cry Out.  I want to like this CD more, I really do.  But it just gets too repetitive to be one I'll pull out very often.

CD Length: 50:10

Tracks:

1. Jesus Saves

2. Not Ashamed

3. The Way

4. Might to Save

5. We Cry Out

6. You are the Lord

7. Everlasting God

8. Overcome

9. You Never Let Go

10. Unrestrained

11. King Jesus