Grace Hotel
  Overall rating: +++

Album Reviews

As a teenage Christian, I love to listen to a group that is upbeat, musically talented and able to bring the unordinary people to worship God for who He is. This exactly what Delirious (A.K.A. Deliriou5? when this CD was made) presents in the their first album; people who have never worshipped God in spirit and truth will reach that moment with Delirious. The songs are all different, unique, and creative.

This two CD package offers over 120 minutes of continuos worship music. Disc 1 begins with Message of the Cross, displaying the Gospel message, in a easy-to-understand musical format. Singers Song is simply a song of praise and adoration to Jesus, while Lord You Have My Heart is a more serious look at our need for Christ. Disk 2 opens with a powerful 10-minute song by the name of Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?, which lead singer Martin Smith uses to build up a climax that is unheard of in modern worship. The other worship songs such as Find me in the River, I've Searched for Gold are mixed with rock, while Louder than the Radio, I'm not Ashamed, let you experience heaven on earth.

Well, I can say for a fact, that this will remain one of my favorite worship CD's of all time. If you are happy, sad, content, or whatever, God has used Delirious in such a way to let you worship Him to make life a little easier and more free.

~ Darin

cutting edge isn't really a delirious release. from 1992 - 1996, a pre-delirious worship team wrote songs and led worship for a monthly meeting called 'cutting edge' at their home church in littlehampton. for years they were known only as 'the cutting edge band' and went through numerous members before settling on the current 5 d: boys. once they became an official band in 1996, they changed their name to delirious, and decided to re-release the ce songs under their new moniker.

ce was originally made up of 4 different tapes (cutting edge one, two , three, and fore), released at various times throughout their career at the monthly meeting, and thus should not be listened to as an album per se, but perhaps instead of 4 seperate ep's of 6-7 songs each. martin smith, delirious' lead singer, is the sole songwriter on all 25 songs. despite it not being an album or a collective group work, there are some real gems on this collection and several awesome worship tunes that are sung around the world today. during the 'cutting edge' years, they saw the meeting grow from 70 people to over 2000 coming together to worship once a month.

at first listen this is found in the following tracks:
- the quiet intimacy of lord you have my heart
- the rousing country/rockabilly of the happy song
- the legendary i could sing of your love forever, a song i heard long before i ever knew who delirious or martin smith was.
- the epic anthem did you feel the mountains tremble?
- the high energy gospel song i found jesus
- and the brooding magnificence of obsession

the impressive thing about all of the songs on ce is the brutal honesty smith pours into his lyrics, which is what made these songs stand out from the rest of the worship songs in the world. smith sings lyrics like:
can i be free from the chains of my religion
they wrap around my head and blind my eyes of faith this tight rope's swinging high
no turning back
teach me to fly

this honesty would be some of the groundwork laid for the delirious catalog of songs, which can even be seen in their latest world service; brutal honesty and an open heart of a man relating to his god. ce definitely has some songs that don't quite stand up to delirious' greatest hits. but this is a great picture of music being played and recorded simply for the benefit of the people of the 'cutting edge' meetings. the fact that this album has gone gold in the u.s. says that these are timeless anthems full of truth, something that a professional band may not have been able to capture under the pressure of a record contract. ce is a good start to the delirious catalog, even before there was a delirious.

~ Michael Gallaugher