Reviews

Source: Delirious
Author: Delirious
Date: Jul 2000

God You are my God
Stu G: This is basically our take on Psalm 63, I was very inspired once by visiting Lychfield Cathedral it was part of an all night gig and while looking around, fascinated by the history, I chatted to a Bishop who told me that there had been a place of worship in that place for over 1000 years. The sense of people coming there to seek God over the centuries was very tangible. And that combined with a great sense of religious tradition caused me to think about more liturgical forms of worship. Combining modern rock music with simple chanted lyrics God you are my God quickly took shape but stayed in the archives of my 4 track Portastudio for many years waiting to be unleashed. We wanted to recreate the feelings I had when it was written, so we must say a big thanks to the Monks of Ampleforth Abbey who sang Psalm 63 in Latin especially for the Glo recording. (In fact they told us they have 32 versions Latin, English, happy and sad all in the key of A) so yes they are real Benedictine Monks and not samples! God you are my God is a song of declaration and a call to worship, the "Glo in the dark" section on the CD really sums it up, we have got monks, a gospel choir, 150 song d: crowd and Delirious? firing on all cylinders. It has to be God that pulled that lot together!!!!

Martin: Well, what an unusual start to a record. It starts with monks chanting, continues with the band singing a simple statement "God you are my God" and moves into this end section where the choir start proclaiming "We're going to the house of God, are you coming?", then ends again with the monks singing "We give you praise". We wanted to start with this song because it is a call to worship. While I was singing I could imagine all the nations of the world gathered together and responding to the chant We're going to the House of God. We had an amazing time recording this song and everything felt complete, apart from feeling that we needed some monks to be on the track. As a symbol of the old and new coming together we started to phone around a few Abbeys and eventually hooked up with the monks of Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire who were amazing. Tim had the pleasure of driving all the way to Yorkshire one day with our front of house engineer, Paul Burton, to record them and has not stopped going on about how incredible the whole experience was. Apparently the Latin chant dates back to 1117. In some ways, this is a very unusual song because it is very simple and almost sounds like a liturgical chant, but we thought we would take it wherever it goes and we are so pleased with the result.

Hang Onto You
Martin: This song was written 3 years ago and was on the short list for the Mezzamorphis album, but we decided to give it a miss at the time. Our first daughter, Elle-Anna, was one day old and I was at home looking after her while my wife was resting. I was laying down with her on my stomach, and I suddenly realised that I had to take care of this small life, as she was hanging on to me I knew that I was in her life to help her through it so this song really started as a song from her to me. Then, while completing it, I could really sing it to my own heavenly father as well. "Looking out like a little child, hanging on when it all gets wild". I am sure we can all identify with this at times. We often confuse childishness with child-likeness. There are two things that I desire more of, they are wisdom and childlikeness before my father in heaven. By the way Stu G played out of his skin on this track.

Everything
Martin: This is also a song that was short-listed for the Mezzamorphis album, but we decided to put it on the shelf as it did not seem finished at the time. We re-worked it a little bit and are really pleased with how it has come out. It is really a simple statement that we would be absolutely stricken if it wasn't for God and it is great to realise that it is Him who gives us everything and who gives us hope within. I love the choir at the end and can remember everyone of them dancing like mad whilst shouting out "You are the light that shines hey hey". The claps were courtesy of every Tom, Dick and Harry in the studio including our Manager Tony Patoto and everyone else hanging around! Check out Jon's bass playing in the verses I really love it.

Intimate Stranger
Martin: This is a very simple song, simply saying "Jesus, I love you". I guess as a band we have gone through a lot of years of trying to break the mainstream music scene and we will never stop trying. There has always been some misunderstanding as to what our motives and agendas have been, but we have always known for ourselves that it is the right thing to do and you just have to push on through it all. This song came as I was doodling on my piano at home and is a simple prayer of dedication to Him saying Jesus you still have my affection. As a band we have always sung about Jesus, some songs about the light and some songs written about what you see by the light, it is always great to sing "Jesus", as there is incredible power in His name.

Investigate
Stu G: This song was inspired by two things a certain 1937 Dobro acoustic guitar and Psalm 139. I was in Kew near London at Chandler Guitars when Martin (who was there earlier) called and said I think I have seen a guitar with your name on it! Whenever he says stuff like that you know you are in trouble. Anyway I took the guitar down from the wall, started to play and out came the chords for this song. Needless to say I left the store with guitar in hand and an idea for a new song. Thanks bro!! I had been reading Psalm 139 and was struck by the words investigate my life O God, find out everything about me, see if I have done anything wrong and guide me on the road to eternal life. Reading this Psalm gave me a feeling of being totally surrounded by God not being able to escape but not wanting to either. That is the feeling behind the chorus "fly away" look at verses 9 and 10, we are not flying away from something on our own, but being led to a better place. When Martin and myself write we spend time on our own gathering ideas before we work on things together and then fine tune the songs and arrangements. Some get thrown in the bin, some make it through unscathed and others become what we call classic "co-writes" where for example we have to come up with a better chorus than the original one. This happened on Investigate and we are proud of it. The spontaneous playing at the end was a great studio moment for us and we decided to keep it as one of the "Glo in the dark" sections. Hope you like it. By the way Martin sang out of his skin on this one!!!!!

God's Romance
Martin: This song came about through hearing someone talk about the film 'Chariots Of Fire'. In the movie Eric Liddell is talking to his sister and he says to her "God made me for a purpose and He made me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure." We as a band have really taken that phrase to heart. We know when we are on stage, in the studio or just at home it is an amazing thing to know that God is for us and that we can say with confidence "I feel his pleasure". God really is excited about being in relationship with us and I believe it really is time for the Saints to shine. One of the things that people are always blown away with is how well the crowd sing at Delirious? gigs, so we really wanted to get that sound on this recording to make it feel like a big experience rather than just a record. We put an invitation on our web-site for anyone that wanted to come to a studio in London one evening to sing over a few of the tracks and thankfully 150 people came and sang their hearts out. When it gets to the middle section in the song you can hear the 150 d:fans singing "Holy is the Lord". It was an incredible evening that we will always remember for the rest of our lives. So, thanks to everyone that came. By the way, you sound fantastic!

Jesus' Blood
Martin: This song was recorded as part of the Mezzamorphis session and went on the American version but, at the time, we decided it was the right thing not to put it on the UK version. We decided to remix it for GLO and I am really pleased that more people can hear this song. It is a very simple, very powerful truth that Jesus' blood never fails. When we recorded the string quartet at Regent Hall in Oxford Street I remember them getting so lost in the song that even when the track finished they kept on playing for 5 or 6 minutes which we have decided to leave on. If you listen closely to the very end and turn it up loud you can hear the London traffic rumbling by especially the big buses! This is exactly how it happened in the moment and we just thought we would leave it on because it is so unusual.

The Years Go By
Martin: This song really is a testimony for me personally and also as a band, that we really can look back over the years and see God's blessing and favour upon our lives. We still find it amazing that certain songs are being sung in churches all across the world and find it incredibly humbling that God has used us in this way. I am proud that, after these years of doing what we are doing, we can still say "The years go by and still I fly on wings like eagle's".

Awaken the Dawn
Stu G: Some of you might know this song from being sung in churches over the past few years. As the song writer it is nice to finally get the chance to make the "definitive" version. The song was inspired when a friend pointed me to Psalm 57 and especially verses 7, 8 and 9. Which include "I will awaken the dawn". It is a very simple song of praise and easy for people to sing. We worked hard in the recording to create different soundscapes to keep the musical elements interesting. One of the highlights of the recording was our day at Westside Studios in London where we not only recorded singers but three Scottish bagpipe players (boy they are loud!). A big thanks to them and also the d: crowd for making it happen. We carried on playing at the end of the song and a spontaneous section developed which we have kept 'au naturel' which is why some of the tones aren't so refined. Enjoy!

What Would I Have Done?
Martin: This song came as a bolt out of the blue. We had written all the songs for the album and we were right into the middle of the recording, when one morning whilst Jon was recording some bass bits I went into the studio live room with a cup of tea to get some space. Stu G's new Dobro guitar was lying there in this open D tuning. I started playing around on it and it was as though this little song just dropped out of the sky. It really reflects emotionally what I was feeling at the time, as the first six months of this year have been some of the hardest times we have ever been through and without knowing Jesus, it would have been impossible to see how we could have got through it. Stu and I recorded the guitars live late one night and the cello was recorded the next day by our good friend, Gerard Le Feuvre. I will always remember the story Gerard told us about his cello and that it was made in 1710. Tedd our co-producer and Charles our engineer who are from the States were completely blown away as they realised that it was older than the whole of America.

My Glorious
Martin: This was one of the first songs that came for the GLO album and we started singing it in church to 'road test' it, which really encouraged us to keep writing more. It is a simple song really, that airs an incredible powerful thing, that Jesus is glorious. I love the bit at the end of the song where everyone starts cheering. This was not a production trick, but something that really happened on the night when we had the crowd recording session. Please take this song and turn it up loud because this is one of the best drum sounds we have ever got of course courtesy of Mr Stewart Smith.