Firmly established in the scene, One Man In The Middle brings you regular, unbiased and honest reviews of music albums and EPs from Christian artists and musicians here in the UK and worldwide. This week we have Delirious? Ultimate Collection by Delirious with an overall review score of 8.4 out of 10.
Album Information:
This is a celebration album – simple as that! We honour what Delirious? and Martin Smith have achieved, both in the Church and the mainstream world. This album archives their journey and reminds us of how faithful our God is.
For some these songs will be a walk down memory lane and for others it’ll be a fresh revolution and expression. Far from being nostalgic this album is definitely for here and now. We are all called to be ‘History Makers’ – this album reminds us of this.
Review:
For a while, after THAT DC Talk announcement, there were some rumours that the UK’s biggest Christian band might be getting back together to do something. Sadly, up to now at least, this has not been the case. Yes the Delirious? boys are continuing to each tread their own separate paths as they have done for the past 7 years since they stopped performing as a band. Yes, it has been 7 years! It seems longer, and yet in that time the spirit of worship that they sowed into the UK Church has continued to develop and grow.
Despite the fact that there have been a number of Delirious? compilations over the years and this is the latest, the Ultimate Collection. This is a series that Integrity have been doing for their key artists like Tim Hughes and Matt Redman amongst others. So it makes perfect sense to do this collection for Delirious? With such an extensive back catalogue of instantly recognisable worship tracks, how on earth do you possibly choose 16 tracks for this collection?
I actually think that they have done a pretty good job in this selection. The songs selected span right across the Delirious catalogue. Quite a few of the tracks, 8 of them (or more precisely 9 if you count “What A Friend I’ve Found” from “Live & In The Can”) are from the days when they were called the Cutting Edge Band. These early recordings are what set the stage for the years that followed and these tracks changed the sound of modern worship – with Martin Smith’s distinctive vocals and the ability to flip between upbeat lively power worship songs like “Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble” and the much more intimate classic “Find Me In The River”. These two songs are back to back on this album which gives a good example of the types of emotion these songs can raise in you.
This ‘ultimate’ collection does carry some of their newer tracks although the most iconic of these also come from the earliest releases – “Deeper” and “History Maker” both from the first full album “King Of Fools”. Other tracks come from “World Service” which was their 5th studio album released in ’03 which proved that they hadn’t lost their touch for writing fantastic worship in both “Majesty” and “Rain Down”.
I would hope that having this collection available in the shops will bring these brilliant songs, many of which still sound really fresh and if someone is coming to them for the first time this will be a real worship revelation. For those of us more familiar with Delirious? then the chances are that you already own most of these tracks. I think there will always be debates regarding which songs have been left out and the ones that are included, but I think this is a great selection of worship tracks.
For track listing, ranking breakdown and more check out onemaninthemiddle.com
