Review Summary: It inspires wonder, but not the right kind...
Over the past several years, I've really grown to love
Hillsong United. Their 2013 and 2015 releases,
Zion and
Empires, respectively, have made me regain hope for the worship music industry, proving that mainstream worship music can actually be well-written and musically conscious.
That being said, I was really looking forward to whatever they did next and was surprised when they announced
Wonder less than a month ago for release this weekend. The title track was so ridiculously infectious that, despite some slightly vague lyrics, I couldn't help but put it on repeat as I waited for the other tracks to be released.
I don't know if it was my wild anticipation or my high expectations, but
Wonder actually lacks a little bit of enchantment now that I've listened to it in its entirety a couple of times. United has done a great job over the past couple of years of carefully cultivating a specific sound for each of their releases, with
Zion being extremely energetic electronically-tinged indie pop and
Empires being slower, more deliberate and detailed synthpop. I love how focused those albums are, and that's the one thing
Wonder lacks. It tries so hard to incorporate elements of these two releases along with
Of Dirt and Grace (their rerecording of
Empires in Israel) and make them work together, but it just doesn't make for a single coherent listen.
Part of this is due to the record's structure. The first seven tracks are actually incredibly strong, with the only weak point being the overlong and repetitive but still musically interesting "Future Marches In." All of those tracks feel to some extent like they belong together, even though they do incorporate some different styles United has used in the past. The transitions between songs are smooth and gradual, not making too jarring of style shifts from track to track. These first seven songs also have really solid lyrics, especially "So Will I," "Splinters and Stones," and "Glimmer in the Dust," all of which come one right after another. These are three of the best songs that have come from any Hillsong group in the past couple of years, especially the first, which talks about creation and how what it does is an act of worship in which we should partake, and the second, which connects the account of the adulterous woman in John 8 to the crucifixion in a beautiful, poetic way.
Unfortunately,
Wonder's second half really shows how disjointed this record is. There's a good three-song stretch where everything sounds good but seems to drift around lyrically and lack any common musical thread. "Shape of Your Heart" is probably the worst offender here, as the song never really goes anywhere dynamically for a lot of its runtime (just over five minutes). "Rain/Reign" picks things up a bit in regard to quality with a lyrically and musically focused slow burn, but right after it comes "Water to Wine," the album's ten-minute long closer that goes nowhere interesting lyrically or musically. It's probably the worst song on the record: not because it's a bad song, but because it goes on for way too long.
In case you couldn't tell, I am criticizing a lot of songs on
Wonder for their length. The album's runtime is 71 minutes with twelve tracks, which leaves us with an average song length of just under six minutes. Now, I don't mind longer albums, and I don't even mind longer Hillsong albums, as both
Zion and
Empires have similarly high average song lengths. The problem is that those two albums had enough going on that they made me pay attention for their entire length, either with the detailed composition of
Empires or the incredibly rich lyricism about the kingdom of God found on
Zion.
Wonder, on the other hand, doesn't really deserve its length, as half of the songs meander for longer than they should without ever reaching a solid musical climax.
More so than a lot of others, I want to listen to this album on repeat; I just can't bring myself to do so. In trying to blend the styles they've dabbled in over the past couple of years,
Hillsong United has failed to make a musically coherent and tight album all the way through its 71 minutes, making
Wonder a lot weaker than their past couple of releases, despite some really, really excellent songwriting on the record's first half.
Wonder tries to inspire its title; instead, it makes me wonder (hahaha) what could have happened if United had strived for a little more continuity and taken some more time to strengthen the record's second half.
My rating: 3/5
Best tracks: "Wonder," "So Will I (100 Billion X)," "Splinters and Stones," "Glimmer in the Dust"
