Chris Tomlin
Hello Love
Sixsteps Records
Grade – A+

The latest from worship artist Chris Tomlin is intently titled Hello Love and as explained by Tomlin himself, the premise behind the new CD is to reintroduce the concept of Love – agape love. He does this in his usual corporate worship style,by writing new songs that celebrate the love of Christ our savior – as is evident by the lead track “Sing, Sing, Sing.”

It is hard to imagine what it must take to outdo yourself with each release. Hello Love does just that,as I feel this is the best album (to date) from Tomlin. Usually, in my experience, Tomlin appears to effortlessly create corporate worship songs that spread like wildfire, but rarely, until now,have I made a personal connection to an entire Tomlin album. Each track on Hello Love does as it is intended by focusing my attention where it needs to be – on Christ.

There are stories behind each song, but one of the most interesting is “God of This City,” which was written and recorded by a worship band called Bluetree. After hearing the song Tomlin knew that it was perfect for his ministry and then he later discovered the background of the song. The song was written in a bar/brothel in Padia, Thailand in the midst of darkness and great human suffering. It’s amazing to think of such a song of light being born in a city of darkness. It’s an amazing story that I am sure you can read about on Tomlin’s website.

The other track that I connected with immediately was “I Will Rise.” Before I read the press materials, I heard this song and I thought how powerful it would be to sing this at a funeral for a believer. I was thinking this because of a pending wake for a close cousin of mine. Knowing that only some of the family (including cousin Rosie) had a notion of Jesus as the savior I thought this song would have a huge impact on those attending. Rosie’s favorite song was “Amazing Grace,” and I thought how wonderful it would be for someone to sing “I Will Rise,” at her wake along with her favorite hymn. Additionally, “I Will Rise” paints an awesome picture of the throne room in Revelations 4/5 and the tune just makes me want to cry tears of joy in the midst of pain.

Hello Love released at the first part of September. You can find more information on ordering and upcoming tour dates on Tomlin’s official web site http://www.christomlin.com/.

- Ken W.