Matthew West
All In
Sparrow, 2017
Matthew West is a storyteller of rare ability, unafraid to get deeply personal. But on the poppy and passionate “All In,” his seventh studio album, he goes, well, all in.
Take, for example, “The Sound of a Life Changing,” which documents with almost diary-level detail West’s decision to serve the Lord as a musician (which he made during a 1997 Steven Curtis Chapman concert). Then there’s “Becoming Me,” which isn’t just about his 11-year-old daughter Lulu — she actually sings on it, too. And it works.
So do the other 13 songs, which, while retaining the signature sound that has earned West critical acclaim in both contemporary Christian music and mainstream musical circles, occasionally veer into uncharted electronic waters.
That’s another good thing.
Lyrically, the album is largely an embrace of grace, like in the driving, up-tempo “Amen,” which may be the most memorable song on the record: “I want the whole world / To know that I’m a new man now, / And it’s only by God’s grace / I’m standing here today.”
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Meet the reviewer
Jeremy Henderson reviews music for The Alabama Baptist. He is co-host of Rich and Jeremy in the Mornings on Wings 94.3 FM, editor of The War Eagle Reader.
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