 |
 |
So there's a certain intangible element at work here, something that filters through the music and the personae of Delirious--something vital, elusive, and larger-than-life. Something that stretches back to the days before they even had a name, when they were still working day jobs, before anyone could have dreamed they would be the spark to ignite a modern worship movement. Even then, there was still a sense of that unexplainable x-factor that seemed to transcend their own best efforts, consistently elevating the whole to something greater than the sum of the parts. In short, the music they were making and the shows they were performing were affecting people, themselves included, in a way that couldn't easily be explained.
"Right from the start," Stu G., the group's guitarist, explains, "there was something about Delirious that people connected with. It was an honesty, almost a naiveté, and yet there was a visionary aspect to it as well--almost a prophetic kind of call to young people to open their lives to God and to live totally in Him and for Him."
That overarching aura of the divine life, emanating as it does from a worshipful abandonment to God, has remained the consistent drawing point throughout the band's unpredictable history--marking, transcending and under girding their rise to pop preeminence on both sides of the Atlantic. Now as a chart-topping, critically acclaimed, best-selling group with a reputation for musical polish and daring, it is still those inspired, spontaneous moments of soul-baring hunger and spiritual intensity that define Delirious as a group. It's also a pretty fair description of their new Sparrow Records release, Glo.
"There was one time while playing in New Zealand when our show finished and twenty thousand people continued to sing History Maker beneath a star filled sky," recalls lead singer Martin Smith, whose songs in recent years have become worldwide staples for artists and churches alike. "That night God spoke to us clearly that we should never stop writing songs that people can sing to, whether they're blasting from a juke box or being sung by a worship leader on Sunday morning."
With that condition imposed on their writing, the boys from Delirious scrapped multiple tracks they had already recorded, and began to fashion a new record from the ground up. The resulting project, Glo, holds over seventy minutes of exaltation, intimacy, worship and glorious yearning that may well be remembered a few years from now as the definitive Delirious record. Combining a return to their most simple, impassioned lyric style since Cutting Edge, with a musically evolutionary mix of thrumming bass lines, haunting keyboards and guitars, inside-your-head vocals, and a textured soundscape of strings, choirs, samples, Benedictine monks and bagpipes, Glo hits the bullseye for fans of Delirious' early worship releases as well as for fans of their more recent forays into the pop world.
"We've been on a journey," explains Stuart, who shares co-writing responsibilities with Martin. "We've twisted and turned a bit along the way because we've tried to be obedient and do what we felt God was calling us to do at each step. We still have a vision to impact the mainstream music world, but we were feeling like it was time again for us to sing songs about how good God is and how good Jesus is. Consequently, Glo is a lot more corporate and congregational in nature than some of our past records."
The record begins with the monks of Ampleforth Abbey singing Psalm 63 in Latin, a fitting intro for the sonically-packed opening cut "God You Are My God." Reminiscent of more liturgical forms of worship wherein simple phrases are repeated until they stick in the memory, "God You Are My God" begins in simplicity and ends in a rousing call to worship as a gospel choir sings over and over "We're goin' to the house of God. Are you coming?"
"The idea for that song began during an all night gig at Lychfield Cathedral," Stu G. explains. "It had been a place of worship for over 1000 years, and the sense of people coming there to seek God over the centuries was very real. We wanted to recreate that overwhelming feeling in the music."
Four of Glo's fifteen tracks--including the last few minutes of "God You Are My God"--are actually spontaneous moments in the studio when a song was supposed to have ended but the musicians felt inspired to continue improvising. Titled "Glo In The Dark Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4" these gems come as close as studio walls will allow to the rampant, unbridled, creative worship of a Delirious gig.
"When we worship in spirit and truth," Martin asserts, "a change always occurs, as our attention lifts off ourselves and on to the beauty and majesty of God. It is in that place that we are constantly being changed from glory to glory and it's in that place that God empowers us to 'Glo'."
Inspired by the anthemic, vertical love song "My Glorious" (which builds to the point that the choir bursts into spontaneous and unplanned cheering), the album title Glo is infused with multiple levels of meaning for the band.
"It's the first three letters of glorious," Stu explains, "but it also conjures up lots of images of being a light in the dark, letting your light shine, and being a witness in today's society. It sums up where we are as a band, too. God is doing a great thing with us individually and as a group--apart from the music--he's really drawing us close to each other lately and we almost feel like we're glowing. The album is a spill-out of all of that feeling, really."
One such overflow is documented in the song "Intimate Stranger," a breathless seven-and-a-half minute expression of love and devotion to Christ that listeners will undoubtedly join their own hearts and voices to. "As a band, we've always sung about Jesus," Martin says. "Some songs are about the light and some songs are about what you can see by the light. But it's always great to actually sing the word 'Jesus'. There is incredible power in His name."
Something of a sister song to "Intimate Stranger," the rollicking tune "God's Romance" celebrates not only the believer's love for God, but also God's pursuing love for the believer. Described by Stu G. as "an absolutely stomping pop rock song," "God's Romance" utilized the talents of 150 delirious fans who responded to an internet invitation and showed up at the studio one night to add their own worship experience to the track.
"A major part of what we've been about all along our journey is to see people really free and abandoned in their worship," Stu G. says. "That's what we've seen across the UK and what we're seeing in the states even now. It's fantastic when we arrive somewhere and find people who are hungry to get stuck into God."
Fueled by and feeding into that hunger to touch the heart of God, Glo is the closest Delirious has yet come in their ongoing attempt to wrestle into music and words the unnamable things of the Spirit. And perhaps it's their simple willingness to stand transparent at that intersection of faith and flesh that ultimately draws other worshipers upward with them.
"All of us in the band are aware of that intangible thing that becomes tangible in our music at times," Stu G explains. "I guess all we can say is that God has chosen to put his finger on us, to put his mark on some of the things we've done, and it never ceases to amaze us. We don't understand why God has chosen us to do this--But we're enjoying it for all it's worth!"
Visit Official Website. |
