Glory in the Highest - Chris Tomlin

With 6 albums and 2 million albums under his belt, praise and worship staple Chris Tomlin has taken his time about releasing a Christmas themed project. Now when it comes, about a decade into his career, I am glad he waited until he felt ready. Recorded as a live album, and produced by veteran Ed Cash, this newest effort from Chris mixes several original tunes with classic carols of the past, and seems to bring the worship part of the holiday to light in a special, and unique way.

Starting things off unusally mid-tempo, the well-known “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” will prepare the audience for what isn’t just another Christmas CD laden with big choruses and grand organs, but a humble collection of beautiful, and orchestrated simplicity. Breaking into a nice upbeat “Angels We Have Heard On High,” the song sounds so natural coming from Tomlin that it seems he could have written it himself. While he keeps a lot of attention on the many noels found here, he introduces 4 new tunes that, even though they sometimes sound a little generic, could easily be additions in the next generation of seasonal favorites. "Emmanuel" is a great example of this, having nice down to earth feel, but has a deep melody and great lyrics that hit home once again for this talented writer.

An interesting thing about this particular project is that, while he sings most of the running time, it features several appearances from different artists as well, those being Christy Nockels, Matt Redman and the up-and-coming, Audrey Assad. Some of the disc’s most strong parts come when these fellow performers step up to the mic, from the a Capella “Come Though Long Expected Jesus” to the jazz tinted “Winter Snow,” things stay interesting as he adds new elements later on.

But even thought there are a lot of good sides to this music, I still would have to say, that though this music is enjoyable to listen to, there is only one small thing that is missing in it. What it is, well, I'm really not quite sure. Maybe it's that it isn't what I regularly hear at this time of year, or that it truly does have a hole somewhere... but that's certainly not to say that it doesn't sound festive. It's just that recording a Christmas album with the background vocals of a June bug chorus outside might not have the same effect as when you are standing in the chilly air of December, with a cup of hot chocolate in hand. But, while that doesn't seem to be an option when sitting inside listening to this CD (well, maybe the hot chocolate part), then I'd say they did a pretty good job. ~ Christian Lingner

4 of 5 stars