Delirious?
Product Code: FURYCD8 / B0000YHI7E
Furious Records, 2003
£12

Category: Music

How do these guys do it? They just keep getting better. This has to be Delirious' best studio album to date. I've got it set on my Mac as iTunes default album on rolling repeat and after more than thirty play-throughs I'm still enjoying it: excellent.

It's noisy, of course: that's Delirious. But it's a glorious noise and deserves to be played loud: if you've got the space, pump up the volume. In an era when so many Christian albums, especially the worship albums, seem to be much of a muchness, the same songs & tunes recycled over and over, this album rocks, a blast of fresh air.

You'll hear the influence of U2 here and there in some of the tracks but never enough to accuse the guys of being derivative: Delirious make their own music, their own style. But they're not afraid of getting others involved: Darlene Zschech helps out with the Hillsong Church Choir on track 4, "Majesty" and somewhere down the line Daniel Bedingfield joins in (though I haven't been able to work out where — no doubt a Daniel Bedingfield fan will be able to put me right there).

The album's high point, for me personally, is track 9, "Mountains High", an emotional roller-coaster ride through the experience of grief: "Sorrow came to visit us today, was the longest day, the loneliest day..." It starts quietly, an evocative poignancy, rises to a crescendo — "This mountain's high, too high for us" — returns to quietness and rises again. Anyone who's experienced the loss of a loved one will recognise the pattern and will find companionship here in a set of very simple but moving lyrics. The full lyrics are online at www.delirious.co.uk.

If you've yet to experience Delirious, World Service is a great place to start; if you're already a fan, you won't want to miss it.

Phil Groom, January 2004

Phil Groom is this site's Webmaster and Reviews Editor. He's a freelance blogger, writer and web developer who spent ten years managing the bookshop at London School of Theology alongside eight years writing web reviews for Christian Marketplace magazine before he came to his senses and went independent. You can find him on facebook or follow him on twitter @notbovvered.

www.delirious.co.uk

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