Hillsong United - The iHeart Revolution: With Hearts As One

Reviewed by Andy Cooper

Hillsong United have been around for 10 years, and their formula of brash Aussie rock worship has become well established around youth congregations of the world. Quite a point is made in this release's marketing about it being recorded in many different countries, but in reality you can't tell the difference between how the crowd sounds in Tokyo with how they sound in Paris or Argentina. And hear the crowd you certainly can: overpowering the music to the extent of obscuring lyrics and hiding the nuances of the skilled players. Check "Take It All": the crowd's clapping is delayed as much as the luggage from Heathrow T5. Listening to more than four or five songs gets aurally exhausting. It's such a downer. They are a great band with a good back catalogue including 'One Way', 'Til I See You', 'Mighty To Save', but the production decisions have brought rain on parade day. All but two songs are previously released, so you'd do better to check their previous offerings, particularly the studio album 'All Of The Above'. The new ones ("You'll Come" and "Love Enough") are recorded in front of a voracious home crowd, and the former could become a new classic with a belting performance from Brooke Fraser, while the latter is more formulaic and forgettable. Some listeners of this set will surely get blessed by the odd moment where the inspiration of the performers manages to rise above the poor bootleg-quality live sound, but others will surely be disappointed.