Creation Sings by Stuart Townend

Creation Sings marked a significant departure for UK worship singer-songwriter Stuart Townend, and perhaps for the genre as a whole. The style of Townend's songwriting remains largely unchanged: characterised by strong melodies which both are easy for congregations to pick up and make the songs memorable, and unusually theologically considered yet still deeply felt lyrics. Indeed, several of the songs were not new when they were recorded for this album. It is the sound and interpretation of this album that were new at the time. The arrangements, showcasing fiddle, whistles and string bass alongside more conventional acoustic guitar and drums, moved out of the typical worship sound, already becoming easily stereotyped, into Anglo-American folk territory. Moreover, most tracks feature at least one instrumental section, and Townend even includes a non-religious, perhaps autobiographical, bonus track. The music throws down the gauntlet to the church to accept as 'religious' all sounds and styles, instrumentals and even non-religious content; Townend's liner notes make this explicit. Stuart Townend expanded this creative direction on 2011's The Journey (qv). ℗ 2009 Integrity Music