Union Creative is the worship band at Whittier Area Community Church in Whittier, California. The group has just recently released their first album, which was recorded in a live worship setting. Union Creative has a modern worship sound similar to bands like Elevation, Gateway, and their California cohorts, Bethel. Much like these bands, Union Creative's sound is very polished and professional sounding. The production quality of the live recording is top notch. The crowd is evident, but not overpowering and the mixing was handled extremely well. The energy and passion of a live worship event was captured, but the sound provided on the album is near studio quality.

The album opens with an instrumental in "Overture" and then goes into three songs with three different leaders. What I appreciate most is that the set list from the evening doesn't follow the same exact typical ebb and flow of a normal worship album as there is some diversity in the way it plays out. The most upbeat songs present are actually "Your Love" and "Throw it All Away" (the fourth and seventh songs). However, even with the variety introduced early, the group start to hone in and focus on worship by the time "More of You" starts. The mood clearly shifts from fun "Christian concert" to serious worship and devotion of the Creator. "More of You" has a more stripped-down sound, but it leads the way for the more powerful sounding "Calm the Storm." Through this highly worshipful stretch comes the only cover on the album in Cory Asbury's "Reckless Love." The group offer up a very thoughtful and interesting cover of the polarizing song. It's much slower than the original and doesn't feature the signature guitar line. They changed the song into a more intimate worship song and it plays well. As the album winds to an end, "Enough" keeps that worshipful feel, but begins to build back into the realm of praise. Finally, the album closes with another upbeat praise number in "Surrender."

Union Creative did an excellent job of crafting this set and put it together in a way that you won't often hear on another worship album. The group features talented musicians and vocalists all around and their songwriting ability is also strong. While unknown in comparison to the major worship bands (many mentioned above), Union Creative has the ability to produce music on the same level of those seasoned worshippers. Union Creative takes things up another level with their ministry as they are offering up chord charts and multi-tracks for free via their website. It seems that their focus is on the ministry and helping others at smaller churches complete their ministry as well. This is a very impressive thing that I would love to see happening more. Worship has unfortunately become a genre of music and business model, but it appears that Union Creative are choosing a different path. If you'd like to hear some new worship music and voices in the vein of the music you likely sing along to at your church, I urge you to give All Things New a listen today.

- Review date: 10/28/19, written by Michael Weaver of Jesusfreakhideout.com

 

 

 Record Label: None
 Album length: 15 tracks: 68 minutes, 9 seconds
 Street Date: September 6, 2019
 Buy It: iTunes
 Buy It: Amazon Music

1. Overture (Live) (1:36)
2. To the One (Live) (5:49)
3. War (Live) (5:59)
4. Your Love (Live) (3:45)
5. Change Us (Live) (5:19)
6. Change Us (Reprise) [Live] (2:22)
7. Throw It All Away (Live) (4:57)
8. Like Never Before (Live) (4:59)
9. More of You (Live) (4:03)
10. Calm the Storm (Live) (5:07)
11. Father (Live) (4:03)
12. Selah (Live) (4:49)
13. Reckless Love (Live) (5:27)
14. Enough (Live) (5:35)
15. Surrender (Live) (4:18)