REVIEW of Jesus Culture: Unstoppable Love

The next great collection of new praise & worship material from Jesus Culture came on June 3, 2014 with the live project "Unstoppable Love". This new album from Jesus Culture band was recorded live during Jesus Culture’s annual Encounter Conference held January 2014 in Sacramento at California’s historic Memorial Auditorium. Featuring a dynamic collaboration of voices who have helped shape, and continue to inspire, generations of worshippers, the 13-track album consists of mostly new original songs, as well as a companion Blu-ray Disc™ (in the US) and DVD (outside of the US) that includes two additional tracks (not on physical CD) and a compelling message from Jesus Culture Director Banning Liebscher, “Answering the Call to Prayer.”

"Unstoppable Love" immediately launched to No. 1 and spent all week on top of the iTunes® “Christian/Gospel” chart while climbing all the way to No. 2 on the iTunes overall “Top Albums” chart. The following week, the album also landed at No. 25 on the Billboard Top 200 and No. 1 on the overall Top Christian/Gospel Albums Billboard retail chart.

We at WorshipReady.com have been loving this new CD, mostly because it contains almost all brand new material... and that material includes many songs that we expect many churches to start implementing right away! Of course, that is our focus here as we evaluate the CD... asking how effective each song would be in corporate worship services. Here is our breakdown...

The CD kicks off with Chris Quilala leading a moderate tempo anthem "Sing Out". As you'll find with many of the songs on this CD, it would be an appropriate song for Easter. It is a great call to worship though for any service, and once you get to the Bridge, you could just stay there for a while!

Next, Kim Walker-Smith takes off with "We Will Run", which is a bit more up-tempo making a declaration that we will run to the cross, surrendering our lives to Jesus. The song is pretty simple and could easily be done in most churches, with or without the synth background sounds. Quilala continues in track 3 with another great Easter anthem (now 3 in a row!) with "Light Of The World". Again, simple, easily-accessible for your worship band. I think this song should be done at every church Easter weekend 2015!

Now one of the best tracks of the CD, Quilala brings a fresh rendition of the old standard "I Surrender All" with his new "Surrender All (Give You Everything)". It is a new song, but the verses take text from the old, familiar hymn... slightly revamped. The bridge repeats a powerful declaration of "All to Jesus, I surrender..." with driving music. Definitely one of our favorite tracks of the project!

Walker-Smith then leads the title track "Unstoppable Love". This song was previously introduced on the studio project "Kim Walker-Smith & Skyler Smith: Home". It contains a powerful message of God's love that truly is the heart of this whole project... more than just a title track. You definitely want to learn this song. No question. Oh, and it's also another good one for Easter! Walker-Smith then slows down a bit more with "Your Name Is Glorious"... at least until it builds back up again! Simply a powerful song of worship here, declaring that we will sing and lift His name higher... with Easter-appropriate lyrics still.

Quilala takes the next few tracks starting with "No Other Like You (We Exalt You)", which is sure to become a worship standard in many churches. The bridge is so simple, but you may just end up worshiping with that part of the song for 10 minutes or so in your services! Then move into "You Made A Way", a much calmer song just thanking Jesus for making a way to enter the Holy Place by what He did on the cross. Then "We Stand" adds another solid anthem to the mix that could round out just about any worship set!

Walker-Smith jumps back in with "Wide Open", a moderate tempo song declaring that we are coming to Jesus with our arms wide open... open for Him. Then Quilala returns with "Born Of God", which is probably the least congregational song of the project. It's a great song for Easter certainly, but probably not the best for your regular worship set.

The project wraps up with two more songs lead by Walker-Smith, first being "In Awe Of You". While it's a great worship song, it's probably not as strong as some of the others on the project. Lastly, Kim leads the very familiar "10,000 Reasons" by Matt Redman. It's of course in a different key than the original, as it's lead by a female, but Jesus Culture didn't really do anything different with the song... outside of getting rid of the floor tom hits before the last line of each verse... which I think was a good call personally.

To conclude, this is probably the best Jesus Culture project, at least for a few years. We love that it wasn't a bunch of covers, but instead lots of new JC originals! As you've picked up from comments throughout this review, most of the songs found here are very Easter-appropriate. You could easily fill your Easter weekend with songs only from this CD! While not a suggestion, we're just saying that they're providing plenty of choices for you here. Do not get stuck on Easter though as most of these songs would be powerful additions to any Sunday worship set! They are easy for the band and congregation both to learn... so get the CD today and start downloading some charts!