ALBUM TITLE: Nothing is Impossible
ARTIST: Planetshakers
BEST TRACK/S: Power, Bring It On, Nothing Is Impossible, Song of Victory, You Are God, Favoured, Come to Jesus
OVERALL RATING: 4.25/5
Nothing Is Impossible, the first studio album from Australian worship band Planetshakers in five years, has been released in the Philippines via House of praise (a year since its 2011 release internationally). (Update: Apparently, I found out late. Nothing Is Impossible has been available since June 2011. Sorry for the mistake, House of Praise!) In context of the recent Planetshakers concert with Israel Houghton (which was AMAZING, by the way), the thousands upon thousands of Christians who flocked to the Araneta Coliseum to worship with these two Christian artists must have bought copies of Nothing is Impossible, as well as the new album, Heal Our Land, by the truckload, thanks to the title track’s featured collaboration with Israel Houghton.
Which is fine, because this studio album is fantastic.
Planetshakers has earned for itself a reputation for high-energy praise anthems and heartfelt worship tracks that dig down deep and make an impact in the worshiper’s heart beyond mere surface-level emotion. Jonathan Hunt, the band’s producer and chief songwriter, is responsible for crafting some of the finer material in the Planetshakers’ long and storied career, and with Nothing is Impossible, he has created some of the catchiest songs of the Planetshakers’ enviable discography.
Power by Planetshakers
Album opener Power starts the album on an extremely high note and sets the bar pretty high with its energetic guitar work and anthemic chorus. The energy level continues at a high pace through Bring It On, one of the album’s highlights with its ready singalong chorus and declaration of faith in a God Who provides, and Give It Up. Fans of Israel Houghton will delight in Nothing is Impossible, as the legendary worship leader makes a welcome feature and stomps his mark all over the title track, clearly the album’s best track. (At the Araneta, this was the most well-received song, and with good reason, as the declaration of faith is one of the cornerstones of the Contemporary Christian genre. Houghton and Hunt soar vocally on Nothing is Impossible, destined to be one of the band’s career highlights.)
You Are God by Planetshakers
The album then segues into several ballads, the highlight of which are You Are God and Favoured. When it comes to writing faith songs, Planetshakers is clearly among the best in the world at expressing the spectrum of testimony and declaration of faith songs; Nothing is Impossible is chock full of them.
The album then takes it up a notch after the ballads with Sound of Praise and Song of Victory – the latter sounding like vintage Planetshakers and reminding me a bit of When I Praise Him by Jon Owens – before closing out with the beautiful piano lines of Come to Jesus and the revival track We Cry Out. Altogether a solid worship album whose energy and sincerity is surprising considering it is a studio album, not a live worship album. It comes highly recommended.
