Listening to A Collision or (3+4=7)

This review is of an older album that I’ve only just rediscovered, I used to listen to it, and then it got pushed to the back on the CD shelf and it’s only just made it’s way back. I think the issue I had with it was that I could only listen to parts of it at a time, however since then my music taste has broadened and I really quite like all of it now (more or less)!

The album was released in 2005, and since then DC*B have released a couple of other albums; B Collision, Remedy, Remedy Live and Church Music is getting released mid-September.

Firstly, it is a long album. It comprises of 21 tracks, coming in at 1 hour 12 minutes which is impressive to say the least! Secondly it is a varied album, there is a lot of different musical styles in it, and that is what originally put me off the thing, there were tracks that I quite liked and others that I really didn’t.

There is this interesting combination of rock and bluegrass, a fair amount of electronic sounds, a healthy amount of the thermion and a good quota of string instruments all combined under the vocals to create a distinctive, recognisable, sound. The title ‘A Collision’ is a reference to this fusing of musical styles, for example track 13 - Do Not Move is a fantastic collision of electro-with a raw rock sound.

Tracks like Here Is Our King and Wholly Yours (tracks 3 &4) are perfect examples of DC*B’s ability to put together great worship tracks, they are strong, loud tracks that really work well, however can be distracting when certain tracks go from this really big sounds then get broken down into bluegrass style of music. It works musically, sounds great, however I am rarely ready for it when it happens!

I hadn’t noticed until someone pointed it out to me, however there is a story running through the album. The story opens with the story of a man’s sin:

“I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity,
You are everything that is bright and clean…
You are holy, holy, holy
I wanna be holy like You are”

The song Wholly Yours looks at us next to God, we are sinful fallen creatures, next to God’s holiness. Then track 7; the title track A Beautiful Collision, is all about the collision between us and God; everything thrown bare before God:

“So afraid You 'll find me out,
Alone here with my doubt,
Here it comes, a beautiful collision…
There seems no end to where You begin and,
there I am now: You and I collide”

Christ’s redemption and grace are seen here and on into tracks like You Are My Joy, which shows the authors joy as a result:

“Love’s taken over me
And so I propose the letting myself go,
I am letting myself go,
You are my joy.”

Finally the album goes on to the end of times looking at our ultimate reward and rescue from this world in tracks like Our Happy Home:

Our better home where we our rest shall gain
There sin and sorrow cease and every conflict’s o’er
There we shall dwell in endless peace and never hunger more…
Jerusalem, our happy home

Highly recommend it, well worth a listen! The stand out tracks: Here Is Our King, Do Not Move and You Are My Joy.

You can pick it up from Amazon.co.uk for £7.99
You can listen through Spotify for free!