Contemporary Christian singer/songwriter Matthew West has released Day One, the carrier single of his new album, out later this year. It’s his first carrier single since Forgiveness was released off Into the Light in 2012. While Forgiveness was no slouch of a single, peaking at No.3, that album spawned a monster hit with the sophomore single, Hello, My Name Is.
Day One is absolutely brilliant. Written by West with Pete Kipley, Matthew West’s Day One is an uptempo Christian music single about new beginnings. What I particularly love about Day One aside from its unusual arrangement–I had to get used to it at the first listen, I couldn’t quite sink into the tempo and guitar arrangement–and the passionate vocals, is how West deftly works God into the equation. Released strategically at the start of the new year to catch people making new year’s resolutions and recommitting themselves to their own personal mission/visions, without that bridge, Day One would have otherwise been a paean to our own will power and strength. But because he included this bridge, virtually straight from Scripture, it avoids that cloyingly banal sentimentality:
Every morning, every morning
Every morning, mercy’s new
Every morning, every morning
Every morning, I will fix my eyes on You
Lamentations 3:22-23 are two of my favorite verses, and I appreciate West using it as a Scriptural basis for his bridge. As a result, we can fix our eyes on the God whose mercies are new every morning. Grace is in there, hope is in there, faith is in there. I love it! Suffice it to say I’m hoping Day One will be another of West’s number one hits. It’s my favorite carrier single of his since he released You Are Everything from Something to Say, and I think it’s absolutely brilliant.
DAY ONE Lyrics
Matthew West
Well, I wish I had a short term memory
Wish the only thing my eyes could see
Was the future burning bright right in front of me
But I can’t stop looking back
Yeah, I wish I was a perfect picture of
Somebody who’s never not good enough
I try to measure up but I mess it up
And I wish I wasn’t like that
I wish I wasn’t wishing anymore
Wish I could remember that nobody’s keeping score
I’m tired of throwing pennies in a well
I gotta do something
Here goes nothin’
It’s Day One of the rest of my life
It’s Day One of the best of my life
I’m marching on to the beat of a brand new drum
Yeah, here I come
The future has begun
Day One
Well, every single day Your grace reminds me
That my best days are not behind me
Wherever my yesterday may find me
Well, I don’t have to stay there
See my hourglass is upside down
My someday soon is here and now
The clock is tickin’
And I’m so sick and tired of missing out
It’s Day One of the rest of my life
It’s Day One of the best of my life
I’m marching on to the beat of a brand new drum
Yeah, here I come
The future has begun
Day One
It’s day one
And here comes the sun
Every morning, every morning
Every morning, mercy’s new
Every morning, every morning
Every morning, I will fix my eyes on You
Every morning, every morning
Every morning, mercy’s new
Every morning, every morning
Sun’s coming up, the beginning has begun
Starting over, I’m starting over
Starting over, I’m starting over, starting now
I’m starting over
Starting over, I’m starting over
Starting over
Starting over, starting now
I’m starting over
