A few years ago I was asked to write about some Matt Redman songs for a post on my church's website. That post never ended up materialising but it would be a shame to waste the work. So here is an introduction to ten lesser-known Matt Redman tracks. They're not my favourite ten, or the best ten. Just a selection that demonstrates what I've always said: that Matt Redman is the greatest worship songwriter of all time (joint, with King David).
Deep calls to deep (The Friendship and the Fear, 1997)
Not all of Matt’s songs are blockbuster congregational anthems. The vast majority of tracks on his 1997 album ‘The Friendship and the Fear’ are simply intimate glimpses into his own worship life, and ‘Deep calls to deep’ is a great example.
Based on Psalm 42, this is a song about longing to simply meet with God. The opening bars set the mood of calmness but with the drums giving a sense of persistence to the music. The lyrics are simple and honest: ‘When can I go to meet with God, my soul is weak, my body tired’.
There is a watery imagery throughout the song - ‘deep calls to deep’ is thought to evoke the idea of the deep sea as well as the deep places of our hearts and God’s. ‘The roar of your waterfalls’ is a direct quote from Psalm 42 in the NIV. Other lines include ‘I thirst inside for heaven’s touch’ and ‘let your waves sweep over all the dry places Lord’.
The song takes its time - the tempo is slow, the first verse is repeated, there is plenty of space between stanzas. Clocking in at 6.32, there is a sense of unhurried waiting which echoes the lyrics perfectly. But it doesn’t drag - interest is maintained through varied backing vocals and string arrangements, but always led by that persistent drum beat that doesn’t change between verse and chorus and really links the theme of the song to the music. The worshipper is willing to sit and wait, without changing his heart posture, for as long as it takes until he receives the Water of Life.
This is always the album I go back to when I need to just pause and be with God, and this track is one of the main reasons why.
Hearts Waiting (These Christmas Lights, 2016)
There aren’t many good modern Christmas worship songs. ‘From the squalor of a borrowed stable’ is a decent song but only the first of four lines are actually about Christmas. ‘Light of the World’ is great, but it's twenty years old and still insists on rushing to Easter (‘I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross’). I’m sure there are some good ones, but there don’t seem to be many. And I’d wager that few, if any, hit the heights of ‘Hearts Waiting’.
This is the centrepiece of Matt’s Christmas album, ‘These Christmas Lights’. He manages to reference ‘O come o come Emmanuel’, ‘Joy to the World’ and the Hallelujah Chorus. The first half of the track is solid - the lyrics flit between waiting for God to come (‘come, o come, Emmanuel’) and joy at his arrival (‘joy to the world’). The piano and electric guitar interchange beautifully from verse to chorus to compliment the melody. It’s solid Matt Redman (which is still as good at the best of anyone else). But the second half is where the song really lifts off.
Matt is a master of many things (see ‘Never Once’, below, for comments about double choruses and singing in the storm!), but one is the simple but effective bridge (think ‘you give and take away’ - simple, but devastatingly powerful in the context of the song). Here is another one. After concentrating on the wait for God and the joy of his arrival, we hear the echo of the Hallelujah Chorus declaring the eternal sovereignty of Jesus. It’s no longer enough to celebrate God’s coming amongst ourselves, now it’s time to declare his Lordship to and over the whole of creation. The volume picks up, the drums make full use of the snare, and the piano/guitar accompaniment is joined by the trumpet.
After a pause to catch breath and another chorus, we re-enter the bridge with a syncopated drum fill. It gives me goosebumps every time, especially when Matt abandons the lyrics to sing above the choir ‘he is the promise, his name is Jesus’ - I recommend listening at a volume that is slightly too high, for full effect! Join me in petitioning worship leaders everywhere to add this masterpiece to their Christmas repertoire!
Flames (Unbroken Praise, 2015)
I’ll be the first to admit that ‘Flames’ isn’t the most sophisticated of Matt’s songs. The fire metaphor is unsubtle, the melody is nothing to write home about, and the sound is poppier than I’d prefer. But a wise man once said ‘even a very average Matt Redman song is better than almost anything you’ll find elsewhere’ (ok, so that was actually me, but I still hold to it).
What I love about this song is it’s unashamedness. It’s not quite on the level of ‘Undignified’ (‘na na na na na na hey’, anyone?) but it’s in that direction. Worship songwriters can sometimes take themselves too seriously and while Matt is very serious about what he does, he tempers that with a willingness to write songs like this. The theology isn’t deep (it’s barely there) but the passion is clear. And it’s really catchy, which helps. I also take music very seriously, sometimes too seriously. I’m notorious for my very narrow music taste. Songs like this remind me to relax once in a while.
All that being said, it is actually a good song. The riff is ear-catching. The synthesiser in the chorus is suitably epic. The metaphor of flames, offerings and altars is strong and coherent. And with the refrain ‘let all our hallelujahs be yours’, Matt manages to take an incredibly common worship concept (‘God I give you everything’) and reskins it into a novel and memorable phrase. And even I can’t quite resist smiling at the re-entry to the chorus after the bridge (around the 3.17 mark).
Upon Him (Let There Be Wonder, 2020)
It can be difficult to write songs about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It’s been done so often - how does one create something that isn’t just the same as what has gone before? But I think it’s important that worship songwriters continue writing new songs about the core of our faith, lest we get too familiar with what God has done and get numb to it.
‘Upon Him’ does this well. The refrain ‘Upon him, upon him’ refers to both our sin and punishment being put upon Jesus, and us pouring our praise upon him in response. Matt is a master at contrasting God’s action and our response through mirrored phrasing (see also: the bridges of ‘We shall not be shaken’ and ‘The glory of our King’ - which occur within 4 tracks on the 2009 album ‘We shall not be shaken’ - and also ‘We are the Free’ from 2011’s ‘10000 reasons’).
The strength of ‘Upon Him’ is in the simple declaration of the death, resurrection and future coming of Jesus in the chorus, and the response given in the bridge (suitably accompanied by a soaring electric guitar). None of this is novel or unique - the themes here have been used countless times in the history of church worship - but Matt has an unrivalled ability to use and combine phrasing and melody to stir the heart in ways that other songwriters do not (or, at least, not as consistently and prolifically - 16 albums of the quality he produces, in 31 years, is ridiculous, both for the ability to write and record so many excellent songs in only 27 years, and for the ability to maintain such a high standard over such a long time period!).
I often struggle with worship songs becoming over-familiar and, basically, a bit boring and overdone. I can’t think of a single Matt Redman song that this has happened with. They stand the test of time, and ‘Upon Him’ is an example of a song which says nothing new, but somehow says it in a new way.
Anthem of the Free (Anthem of the Free (Soul Survivor 2003) - 2003)
The title of this song should tell you what it’s like - celebratory and anthemic. Opening with Matt singing the chorus over electric guitar chords, the first half minute builds as the bass guitar comes in and then the chorus repeats with the full band. The lyrics are simple, focused on the praise of Jesus being sung around the world for all eternity.
The structure of the song is very simple - it has only one verse, and the verse, pre-chorus and chorus together take only about a minute to sing. These are repeated, and then just as the song sounds like it might be about to end, a similarly straightforward outro (it’s the same line repeated 4 times) extends the celebration and brings the theme from our current praise to that of eternity. Attention is retained throughout via the relentless driving pace of the song (in the chorus the snare drum is heard on 3 of every 4 beats) and the intricacy of the bass guitar which definitely sounds more like Matt’s 90s recordings than his more recent stuff.
Christian corporate worship has been described as a cross between a love song and a football chant (Chris Juby, c.2008). I love this description, but we don’t actually sing many songs with those football-terrace qualities of anthemic melodies and simple but evocative lyrics. ‘Anthem of the Free’ is one of these. It stirs my soul and raises my pulse.
Never Once (10,000 Reasons, 2011)
One of Matt’s greatest skills is to write songs about persevering through suffering and trials, and worshipping God throughout. ‘Blessed be your name’ is the most well-known of these, but many will also be familiar with ‘You never let go’. Another is ‘Never Once’ - I actually rate other examples such as ‘Questions’ and ‘Songs in the night’ slightly higher, but I want to write about ‘Never Once’ because it also features another classic Redman quality (and even takes it further than any of his other songs). ‘Never Once’ is interestingly a little different from the other songs just mentioned because it is sung from the perspective of having completed the trial, rather than being sung from the midst of the suffering. It looks back and says ‘you were with us the whole way’.
The two short verses (which both feature right at the beginning) say the same thing in different words, and the pre-chorus and chorus are very straightforward. The song builds into each chorus, with the nice touch of leaving the guitars to crash out some slightly dirty chords every other beat, while the piano takes the role usually assigned to an electric guitar of complementing the melody with high-pitched riffs. As with most of Matt’s songs on this theme, the chorus and/or bridge include heavy percussion on every beat, giving the sense of steadiness, perseverance, and continually putting one foot in front of the other to keep moving.
The other classic Redman feature here is the double chorus - there is a chorus that features throughout the song but then at the end there is another chorus with the same melody but new lyrics. The finest example of this feature is on ‘You alone can rescue’ (though not the album version), but ‘Never Once’ also displays it well. It is subtly done - the music basically doesn’t change, there is barely even a drum fill to mark the transition. But the lyrics move from proclaiming that we were never alone to declaring that we will continue to keep going - the only time the song looks forward. The way ‘Never Once’ takes this feature further than any other song is that before the second chorus (at 3.08) there is actually also a second pre-chorus (at 2.30) which has the same effect. It’s these sorts of touches that help the song become significantly more than it otherwise would be - and Matt is a master at them.
Missions Flame (Facedown, 2004)
It’s nice to have some worship songs in minor keys. From the opening bars, Missions Flame has that slightly disturbed, minor feel - from the relentless guitar riff in the verses, the organ chords underneath everything, the harmony from the backing vocalist. The music is a joy throughout, and the lyrics are equally strong - I want to highlight two elements in particular.
The similarities and differences between the two verses are very clever. The lines all rhyme in the same way, and both verses begin and end with the same words (‘Let worship’ / ‘Send us out’). Between them they are like two sides of the worship/mission coin - verse one describes worship as the fuel for mission and verse two describes it as the aim of mission. The balance and symmetry is excellent.
Later, in the bridge, comes the line ‘...will sing your praise, will sing your praise’’ (describing how all of creation will sing praise to God). Then at the end of the bridge you think the line is repeated, but the careful listener (or one who googles the lyrics) realises it is now ‘we’ll sing your praise, we’ll sing your praise’ which evokes the worshipper adding their own praise to that of creation. Additionally, this line is repeated to delay the return to the chorus - this heightens the anticipation, and the payoff is enhanced adding the hi-hat to the cymbal on the first beat of the chorus.
The whole song is masterfully and intelligently crafted. It was once said (by Chris Juby, again) that ‘when Matt Redman leads worship it feels like he’s been praying about it for literally years’. His recordings feel like they’ve had the same attention and dedication paid to them.
Wake up my soul (Wake up my soul, 1993)
This is as far back in Matt's back catalogue as it is possible to go. Track number one from album number one, this was released when Matt was 19, meaning it was probably written when he was just 18. There is nothing on the album that is commonly sung in churches but there is some great stuff in there.
The title track is the highlight and is a simple song about running the race of discipleship. Even back then, Matt had the ability to take a common theme and to write a song that somehow stands out. The lyrics hold strongly to that theme and are creative without getting distracted from the point, although the two verses do lack a sense of diversity - the second is basically the same words as the first but, rather than asking for the Spirit, acknowledging receipt of the Spirit. The music is led by the piano, supported by bass and synth - not an electric guitar in sight (that role is played by the sax). Gosh, 90s worship music was different, and I miss it!
The genius moment in this song is at the end of verse two (2.42) when, instead of heading back to the 8-line chorus or even to a bridge, Matt curtails the final line of the verse and then sings lines 7, then 8, then 7 (again) of the chorus, but all with a different tune, to lead into the sax (i.e. electric guitar) solo. All boosted by the ramping up of the drums and backing vocalists. It's bonkers and it's glorious. It's the best moment of the song and demonstrates that, even way back then, Matt could take things to another level. Any other songwriter would simply return to the chorus and it would be fine. Matt injects something different, an X-factor that separates him from others.
Praise God (Lamb of God, 2023)
Yet another song on that great theme of worshipping through trials and adversity, 21 years after ‘Blessed be your name’ showed us what Matt can do with this idea. Since then we've had ‘You never let go’, Through it all’, ‘Never once’, ‘Songs in the night’, ‘Questions’ and now ‘Praise God’.
This latest one is probably the simplest of the lot lyrically. The gist is ‘there's always a reason to praise God, when blessings flow and when they don't’. But the actual lyric is ‘when it seems they don't’ which is an important distinction that I don't think is emphasised in the previous songs on this theme.
Musically, this song has similar features as discussed earlier, such as a relentless driving kick drum in the verses, representing the determination to keep moving forward despite it circumstances. This is contrasted as we enter the first verse, where the drums, and indeed all the instruments, are stripped back. However in the second chorus the music ramps up instead, before building into and through the bridge.
The bridge is the climax of this song with the way it contrasts ‘my way’ and ’your way’ - another example of the lyrical mirroring that so often characterises Matt's work. This song stands out from most of the others with its tone of defiance - not merely holding on to God (though there's nothing wrong with that) but proactively fighting back against the temptation to despair, and ‘still go your way’. Like ‘Flames ‘ it's simple but very, very effective.
So there you are. Ten songs you might be less familiar with, but hopefully a taster of the breath, depth, and outright genius of Matt Redman’s catalogue. I could have chosen a completely different set of ten songs and written about them with just as much enthusiasm. There's so many out there - go listen to them. Thank me later.
