Shining a Light on Exceptional Christian Music

The state of worship music has become somewhat predictable.  We all know when we are listening to a rock/worship band.  We find ourselves presented with sappy, overly dramatic music that – more often than not – follows the same boring pattern that has been followed by band after band.  Bands settle, for settling is what has worked for years.

Urban Rescue has chosen to not settle.  On their self-titled EP they present their audience with songs that accomplish worship, but what separates them from the others is that they pack their songs with edge, originality, and muse.  Their songs wrestle with unique forms of delivery from graceful vocal harmonies, panning guitar riffs, melodic ambiance, and lyrics offered to their King.

‘Simply Amazed’ opens the EP.  There are times in this song that you wonder if Urban Rescue is really different from the other worship bands, but at the three-minute mark we find the band utilizing vocal harmonies, ringing bells, a thumping kick drum, and a wonderful chord change that leads right back into a thunderous conclusion.  ‘Symphony’ echoes the band’s purpose which is to “pour out the symphony of praise”.  ‘Symphony’ is a tightly structured song and once again you wonder if Urban Rescue is different from the others – but once again at about the three-minute-mark we receive a building wave of singing in unison that pushes the EP towards that unsettled ground where most worship bands won’t go.

With ‘This is the Day’, Urban Rescue takes a classic tag-line and turns it into something completely new.  They border the lyrics with their instrumentation in a manner that lets the joy of the song bloom, and without fail, at the three-minute mark Urban Rescue gives us another gem, a soft break which jumps right back into an uprising conclusion, showered with bells, guitars, and piano.  It’s as this song ends that listeners need to prepare themselves for one of the best worship/rock songs that this reviewer has ever heard.

‘Down Upon My Knees’ opens with a crackling audible wind that is quickly joined with the down-strumming acoustic guitar, all of which is protected with the little tweaks and dings of the bells.  We get our first taste of Urban Rescue’s inner turmoil that comes with every walk of faith, but we also get resolution.  From singing about the ground breaking all around him, confusion waving over him, and from the longest night, Urban Rescue still asks the question we all wonder, “Can you save me?”  Urban Rescue quickly answers their own question, “For I know you are here with me”.  The chorus of this track shouts out to the Lord for a hand of salvation and we are also presented with Urban Rescue’s first guitar solo. Of course it’s at the three-minute mark, but it isn’t exactly what you would expect to find with a worship band.  It is splendid – but brief.

This song ends in an answer that is completed in the next track, ‘My Hands’.  Urban Rescue flirts with electronic beats and other instrument manipulation on this track.  ‘My Hands’ is a good song, but it is a bit repetitive lyrically, so it’s best to focus on the organized instrumentation and allow the vocals to come in second place.

Urban Rescue concludes their EP with ‘On This Beautiful Night’.  As a listener you can expect to find a fitting conclusion to an adventurous EP.  The band chooses to leave their listeners with an ambient, pulsating tune that calms the ears and soothes the soul.

Urban Rescue has achieved success where many other worship bands have failed.  They have created a mix of sounds that takes worship straight into the arms of the hungry void that has been created by so many years of complacency within the rock/worship world.  They step into this void with confidence, and it is the hope of this reviewer that other bands will follow suit.

Written by: Daniel Burroughs