Glory in the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship

The Glory in the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship album by Chris Tomlin is a contemporary rendition of many age-old Christmas tunes. It includes special features by Christy Nockels, Matt Redman, and Audrey Assad in three separate tracks. Among the Christmas carols included in this album are “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “Joy to the World,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “O Holy Night,” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.” For some songs, he even adds his own refrains to give the songs a fresh, new twist. You will certainly find these songs a refreshing rendering of the old familiar Christmas songs.

Glory in the Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship Review:

There were more than forty customers who commented on this album, and they gave it an average rating of 4.4 stars.

Those who loved the album commended it for achieving what it aimed to do. One reviewer appreciated some of the a capella singing, as she felt that it showed that the presence of God can still happen in the absence of noisy music. She felt that this album was among the most consistent and powerful Christmas worship CDs she had ever listened to. Many reviewers felt that the album definitely had Chris Tomlin’s “stamp” on it, and they commended his creative style. One reviewer described the album as being genuinely Christmas-y while being glorious, thankful, and worshipful. Another buyer appreciated this album for being straightforward at pointing wholeheartedly to Christ, whom he believed was the main reason for the season, after all. He also commended Tomlin for his attempt of bringing out the worship side of traditional Christmas carols. As a worship leader, he was commended for succeeding at bringing the live crowd (as this is a live album) in worshiping Jesus using old Christmas songs that apparently had lost their worship element after having become so familiar over the years. In fact, a few reviewers described this as one of Chris Tomlin’s best works ever, playing it over and over with delight.

Many of the reviewers who had issues with this album seemed to have preferences for nostalgia, which led them to look for Christmas music that made them “feel good.” Interestingly, a handful of other reviewers made their own counter-comments, that they believed Christmas songs were essentially about worshiping the King who was born on Christmas day; as such, this album was described as accomplishing that, as it was all about worship. Of course, one reviewer conceded that the songs did happen to have very little musical elements that seemed associated with Christmas, which was perhaps the reason why many reviewers felt robbed somehow.

From these findings, we would like to issue a warning for this Christian music CD: if you are looking for a Christmas album just like any other you can buy from a secular bookstore, you will likely find this to be a disappointment. But if you are like most Christians who are hungry to see the spotlight shift back to Jesus especially on Christmas, you will likely find this to be a powerful worship experience.