[.ca] Hymns Ancient And Modern Liv

Good album, but could have been better!:
The idea for the Passion Hymns CD is great. They have mixed ancient hymns with modern arrangements and in some cases and modern chorus added to break up the song (or a place to breathe as it says in the album cover). I really like this CD. The opening song is great, "O Worship the King" and Chris Tomlin adds an awesome chorus that makes this a very useable song in any church (as well as a good listen anytime). David Crowder Band gives "Doxology" and "All Creatures of our God and King" new life and are two of the best arranged songs. "The Solid Rock" is a standout as well as Charlie Hall and band rock it out on this one. "Take My Life" ends the CD powerfully (same as on the recent Passion Sacred Revolution CD). Some of the rest of the songs are a little weak. Especially the great hymn, "How Great Thou Art" which for some reason they tried to change it from a powerful song, to a catchy pop tune which really doesn't work. All the songs are great of course because they are hymns, just some of the arrangements are not that different than the original and can leave you wishing it could have been more original. Production on the CD is not quite as top notch as some of the other passion CD (although not bad at all, just not up to their high standard). If you don't know hymns then get this album, if you do know hymns then prepare to be enriched, renewed and a just a little bit disappointed.

Reason for 100+ year hymns:
This CD will help you to a place of worship and praise in a deeper sense. Lyrics of hymns in this collection are uplifting, invigorating... just... so good. The more I listen to this collection, the more I'm drawn into the beauty of these hyumns.

I adore it:
I have been waiting for a CD like this for years. Having grown up in a conservative church environment, I have always had an affinity for the hymns that we sang in my youth in the old stuffy church that lacked AC. I connect with God through them not only because of the link to my past, but also because they are much more musically and lyrically deep than many of today's worship songs. The problem is that until this release from Passion, most hymn compilations that I had encountered were directed more towards the "mature" crowd (e.g. major usage of pipe organs or cheesy background vocals.) This release marries the old songs that I love with artists I have grown to love from other Passion CDs, including David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, and Charlie Hall. These renditions are amazing, and I am still getting tingleys on my fourth or fifth listen to the CD. The new approach to these classic songs breathes new life into them, and if you loved "Take My Life (and Let It Be)" before, wait until you hear it now. I feel spent after listening to the CD. I do have a minor complaint in the song selection, because there are a couple songs that I have not even heard of before on this disc, which are taking the place of other songs that I would love to hear. But I am hoping that this becomes a series that will breathe the same new life into several other of my old favorites. And this small complaint does not detract from the feeling of awe that I have had with this worship experience. If you love hymns and you love the previous work of Passion artists, you will love this disc.

Beautiful, Rich, Rewarding:
I can't tell you how happy I was to hear the first track on this CD (Tomlin's version of 'O Worship The King'). I knew right away that it wasn't going to be a cheesy hymns redo, but fresh life breathed into songs I have treasured all my life. Get the CD, if only for the quality, musicality and power alone. But, I love 'Hymns Ancient and Modern' because it refuses to allow the winds of modern worship to blow these great classic hymns out of the contemporary church. Thank you Passion! I have especially enjoyed the discovery of "Here Is Love," probably the coolest musical track on the CD and a hymn I had not heard until Matt Redman's introduction. Beautiful! And like many of the hymns on this disc, a simple bridge/chorus section has been added that makes the Hymn sing more like a chorus, while remaining steeped in rich lyrical content. Charlie Hall brings great versions of "How Great Thou Art" (simple, yet with a really nice groove), "Christ The Solid Rock," (one of the CD's best) and "Joyful, Joyful." Tomlin, Crowder and Nathan and Christy Nockels (Watermark) add track after track of excellence, merging incredible lyrical depth with arrangements that are infectious and powerful. Christy's version of "Praise To The Lord" has stayed on repeat in my CD player for many long stretches, yet it moves me every time. This is one of Passion's best, and I, for one, am hoping for a Hymns Volume 2!

A great CD for learning to appreciate the new (and the old):
Or "A View from the Other Side" To explain why I like this CD, I have to give some of my background: I grew up in a hymn-singing church (organ, piano and maybe a trumpet or two on Easter) and have spent the last four years at college going to a church where they sing only psalms with no instruments (As a side note, as shocking as such a church may sound to some, I've never seen a congregation who loved singing and loved *what* they were singing more than that group of people. I have really grown in my knowledge and appreciation of the worship of God and the psalms, not to mention the improvement in my singing skills). In any case, as I move on to another part of the country, I'm faced with the decision of where to worship, and as a result, HOW to worship. I guess I'm a "not-so-old fogey" because I really like the old stuff and have trouble appreciating/liking new music, Christian or otherwise, whatever I may think of the theology behind it (the theology of worship, that is), which, by the way, I'm still working on understanding. All this is to say that this CD is great for anyone who's grown up on the great hymns of the past but is interested in giving the new styles a chance. The words and (for the most part) tunes in this CD are familiar favorites from the past with all their lyrical beauty and depth, but with the musical and vocal stylings of the present. For someone like myself who struggles with a knee-jerk reaction of dislike to the bulk of contemporary praise and worship music, and wonders how much of the reaction is simply personal preference and what I'm used to, and how much of it is justified, this CD is a nice bridge because I can learn to appreciate the music as I listen to my old favorite lyrics which, whether themselves justified or not, at least do not produce a knee-jerk reaction. It's also great to be able to listen to them in the setting of my living room instead of wondering about all these issues while trying to worship at church. And in the meantime, work on my theological study. :) This CD is the product of what seems to be an encouraging trend of trying to understand Christianity in today's "postmodern" world by looking to the classic foundations, beliefs, practices, and products (such as creeds and hymns) of the historical church, instead of just adapting to whatever the pop culture of the day is. By the way, if you're interested in learning more about that, one book I'm reading now that seems to have a lot of interesting insight into this trend is "Ancient-Future Faith" by Robert Webber. I don't agree with all of it, but I have learned a lot so far, and have been challenged in many areas. Looking from the perspective of the "modern" worshipper (which I realize is probably the majority of people reading this), this CD would also be a nice bridge for those who have grown up with the contemporary style and have a knee-jerk reaction to anything old. Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, and the other artists are all top-notch singers and writers who have written many other popular worship songs of their own, and they do a great job with this CD. I do agree with others who are a little disappointed by "How Great Thou Art". A lot of the power of that hymn is lost by upping the beat and giving it a poppy feel. In conclusion, although my quest of finding out how to really worship in spirit and in truth is far from over, this CD has at least been a part of helping me get started by showing me that old and new are not necessarily incompatible and by encouraging me that the past has not been forgotten.

• O Worship the King - Chris Tomlin
• Doxology - David Crowder Band
• Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
• Praise to the Lord, The Almighty - Christy Nockels
• Father Let Me Dedicate - Matt Redman
• How Great Thou Art - Charlie Hall
• Raise Up the Crown (All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name) - Chris Tomlin
• All Creatures of Our God and King - David Crowder Band
• Solid Rock (On Christ the Solid Rock)
• Phos Hilaron (Hail Gladdening Light) - Passion Worship Band, Passion
• Joyous Light (Hail Gladdening Light - Revised) - Chris Tomlin
• Here Is Love - Matt Redman
• Fairest Lord Jesus - Christy Nockels
• Take My Life (And Let It Be) - Chris Tomlin