| Length: | 37:25 |
|---|---|
| Cuts: | May The Glory Of The Lord |
| Gloria | |
| Awesome God | |
| Before The Throne Of God Above | |
| Shout To The Lord | |
| He Is Exalted | |
| The Highest Glory | |
| Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed | |
| He Loves To Hear Our Praise | |
| I Come By The Blood | |
| More Of You |
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Having cast instruments aside with success in the past to tackle numerous hymns and even Gershwin with vocal chords alone, Glad turns their attention to modern praise and worship tunes on A Cappella Worship•The Highest Glory, liberally applying their trademark a cappella arrangements. It marks their seventh vocal exclusive recording since their 1988 The Acapella Project (sic) hit the shelves and gave their CCM pop band career a paradigm shift. (Two a cappella compilations are also available, the latest of which is a 2 CD/cass unit called The Collector's Series that was released at the same time as A Cappella Worship•The Highest Glory.) Glad has made a few slight refinements over the years, such as learning the correct spelling for "a cappella" and adding non-intrusive percussion to some arrangements, but A Cappella Worship•The Highest Glory is basically the same sort of rich sonic vocalizing.
Beginning with "May The Glory Of The Lord" Glad presents a parade of underlying "dah" syllables in perfect harmony to support the lead vocalist. The accompaniment syllable of choice for "Gloria" is "doo." With "Awesome God" the two are combined. Although the harmony tones may be somewhat limited at times, rhythm, blend, and dynamic swells are exploited creatively and with precision. With every other arrangement a complex multipart technical marvel, the homophonic and solo sections of "Before The Throne Of God Above" and "More Of You" provide contrast.
If Glad suffers at all, it's from being self imitative. This isn't entirely their own fault. Their base of CD customers since 1988 have demanded more and more a cappella, refusing to purchase excellent albums like Floodgates and Romans. In being forced to step up to the microphone sans instruments so frequently, Glad has practically saturated the very niche of the market they dominate. A Cappella Worship•The Highest Glory will probably sell to Glad's current proponents at a decent level of return, but don't expect it to attract a large number of new fans. A somewhat high profile tour could introduce them to a broader base. Perhaps their move to the Diadem label will foster such a tour. Excellent music such as this deserves to be heard by more people.