Music Review: Are We There Yet? By Hillsong United
Music Review: Are We There Yet? By Hillsong United
24 September 2022
Hillsong UNITED's Are We There Yet? isn't monumental, but will please fans of contemporary Christian worship and the band's earlier work.
What makes a worship band a worship band? Is it leading a congregation or congregations in corporate worship? Releasing albums of inspiring material for private devotional worship? Being recognised as an integral cog in the Christian music industry, generating large sales and spreading a corporate brand and a message of hope?
Whatever definition you land on, Hillsong United (formed in 1988 from the church’s youth ministry) is skilled, galvanised to its mission and wants you to hear what it has to say.
Hillsong’s travails and ongoing turmoil are well-known and not the subject of this review. Suffice it to say that, in times of trouble, the faithful can gain solace in faith expressed through heartfelt lyrics and music.
Hillsong United’s latest offering, Are We There Yet?, provides many inspiring moments sonically and spiritually. The mournful guitars, breathily sincere vocals and evocative lyrics combine to offer hope where it is needed and sought. Competent harmonies, motifs that capture attention, reverent arrangements and lyrics that evoke Gospel sighs ... There is some good songwriting and enough talent to make this a worthwhile exercise. And, doubtless, it will sell well to millions worldwide who access Hillsong’s music.
Stand-out tracks are ‘Grace on Repeat’, an optimistic folksy/country paean of praise to the God “who’s never given up on me,” and ‘Sure Thing’, with its dissonant eeriness built on Edward Mote’s 1834 hymn ‘My Hope is Built on Nothing Less (On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand)’.
‘Chariot’ (referencing the time-revered, much-recorded spiritual from African-American experience) cites the prophet Elijah’s ride to the heavens and the cross that bore Jesus Christ, hoping that God’s grace “will carry me home”.
The usual caveats are that syncopation, pitch and production would not easily translate the album’s tracks for congregational singing or live services. Also, the repetition can be spiritually and musically numbing, and there is a sameness to the bulk of the tracks.
Yet these are moot points, as I’d expect the purpose of this project is to inspire and soothe people in a time of existential crisis for a group of believers. It is difficult (and probably churlish) to quibble with this kind of ministry, and Are We There Yet? – an unanswered question for Hillsong as a whole – will help those on their current journey towards resolution.
Are We There Yet? is available now on streaming platforms. Physical copies are available at Christian bookshops.
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