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Phil Wickham
Heaven & Earth
Artist Info: Discography
Album length: 12 tracks: 47 minutes, 59 seconds
Street Date: November 17, 2009
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Since his debut in 2003, Phil Whickam has been
offering a solid hybrid of worship music with a
strong influence of Britpop. Throw in Wickham’s
previous compelling lyrics along with a good
sophomore release for INO records (Cannons) and
the respected singer/song writer has some
momentum built for possibly his best project yet, Heaven And Earth.
Heaven And Earth has been tagged as a vertical
worship project, but that label doesn’t
describe Wickham’s personal relationship with
each song as the album catalogs his own
discoveries over straight worship tracks. The few
songs which would be classified as praise and
worship songs solely cover one topic and actually
fall behind the album in lyrical depth. For
example, despite Bart Millard’s (MercyMe) guest
vocals, “Safe” is average musically and the lyrics
are hindered with clichés. And similarly, while
the message in “Because Of Your Love” is
powerful, the lyrics are far from original
(“Because of Your cross/My debt is paid/Because
of Your blood my sins are washed away”).
However, the main theme is obviously targeted at
Heaven and its creator and the songwriting is
satisfying, and in some cases actually
thought-provoking. The opener, “Eden,” isn’t
necessarily a longing to be in Eden, but rather,
to have that relationship with our creator that
Adam had with God. Though the twelve track
journey takes some detours to speak on salvation
(“The Time Is Now”) and ponder the triumphant
return (“Your Arrival”), Heaven And Earth
eventually swings back to its original theme with
Wickham’s longing to sing his “Heaven Song.”
Phil Wickham does a nice job of offering
an alternative worship sound on top of his heavily
Britpop-laced tunes. “Cielo” (translated as
‘heaven’) has an airy artistic worship sound,
while “Your Arrival” incorporates an upbeat
modern worship tune. And Wickham really never
stops putting a variety of tunes out on the
table to spice up his already solid song writing.
From the up-tempo folk pop song “The Time Is
Now,” to the synth-filled pop-rock track “Hold
On,” to Wickham’s wonderful vocal output on
the title track, Heaven And Earth is stacked with
an intriguing track listing which is a clear
standout in the worship genre. Even “Coming
Alive” is also a great attraction for Abandon
fans with its alt pop beat, but the gem of the
album is observably “Eden,” as its flowing,
piano-driven tune should draw some comparisons to
Coldplay. The only drawback to the audio factor
is that Wickham sometimes will put only one
prominent feature into a specific track instead
of fully exploring its potential.
Heaven And Earth is a great worship album. But,
unfortunately, part of what makes the album great
is the fact that so many of today’s worship
artists settle for mediocrity instead of thinking
outside the box like Wickham. Wickham pulls off
an excellent hybrid of interesting lyrics, great
vocals and fantastic music, but it’s likely that
even he could have given a better effort. As it
stands though, Heaven And Earth is easily one of the
finest worship projects of the year and a huge step over Phil Wickham’s peers.
- Review Date: 11/13/09, written by Nathaniel Schexnayder of Jesusfreakhideout.com
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 Record Label: INO Records
Album length: 12 tracks: 47 minutes, 59 seconds
Street Date: November 17, 2009
Buy It: iTunes
Buy It: Amazon.com
- Eden (3:16)
- Coming Alive (3:44)
- Heaven & Earth (3:49)
- The Time Is Now (4:33)
- Hold On (3:33)
- Safe (3:41)
- I'll Always Love You (3:47)
- In Your City (4:16)
- Your Arrival (3:44)
- Because Of Your Love (4:33)
- Cielo (5:03)
- Heaven Song (4:05)
- Heaven & Earth - Behind The Scenes Video **iTunes Only
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