Take Heart (Again)

In lieu of their perennial new live worship albums, for 2020, Hillsong Worship has decided to release a """"re-imagined"""" album instead. A more devotional album peddling on their softer and acoustic side,""""Take Heart (Again)"""" features """"pandemic-era"""" takes of songs taken from the songbooks of all three of their collectives: Hillsong Y&F, Hillsong UNITED and Hillsong Worship. Most exciting is that they have reached back to as early as 1999 for a revived version of Rueben Morgan's """"Eagle's Wing,"""" a song that Darlene Zschech once admitted was her favorite Hillsong song. The rest of the songs are more or less garnered from their more recent outings with a few other surprises (which we will get too). \\n\\nBrooke Ligertwood gets the ball rolling with album opener and lead single """"Hosanna. """" While her 2007 original finds her sharing the microphone with Darlene Zschech, this updated take finds her on her own. The song sets the template for the record. Setting her emotive alto in the company of acoustic guitar riffs,""""Hosanna"""" becomes more an intimate prayer for God's intervention than a rock stadium power ballad. Ligertwood follows up with UNITED'S oft overlooked """"For Those Who Are to Come. """" Meanwhile, the John Leventhal-seque electric guitar pickings of """"New Wine"""" give this Ligertwood composition an Americana take which is refreshing. With a female lead, courtesy of Taya Smith, 2012's """"I Surrender"""" gets a more tender disposition. This…