The first time I heard Vicky Beeching – and got to worship with her – was when she led at a regional OneThing gathering in the Chicago area several years ago. I’d never heard of her. No one I knew had ever heard of her, but she stood in front of us and shared a great testimony about following God’s call into ministry, and I liked her instantly.
Vicky is real. She’s a young woman following God’s call to be a worship leader, and she does it in the most honest way. She gives herself away for the equipping of the Church, and her newest CD, Eternity Invades is a shining example of her heart for the ministry of worship.
If you like Vicky’s previous releases, you’ll like Eternity Invades. She definitely has a style, and she sticks to it. Listening to this album, I couldn’t help but be struck by the nature of the thing: it’s more a portfolio than an entertainment piece.
I like Vicky, but at a first, casual listen I wasn’t excited about Eternity Invades. A lot of her music, and her vocals, are just not my style and I knew this wouldn’t be an album I’d pull up frequently on my iTunes as work-music or something to jam out to in my car. (But that’s just me. Like I said, if you like her style, you’ll like this album.)
When I sat down to really, critically listen, though, I had to wonder if that was even Vicky’s intent. The tagline on Vicky’s website is “Fueling the Church for Worship,” and that’s totally what this collection of songs does.
As I sat and made some notes on each song, I noticed that on all but two or three songs I wrote, “Great for congregational worship.” Every song on the album follows a similar structure – couple verses, chorus, bridge (seriously – every song has a bridge). At first that was kind of annoying, but then I started to realize that each song stands alone. Any worship leader could take (almost) any song and use it with his/her congregation and get a great worship experience out of it.
Vicky has her own style, but the simple structure of her songs will lend them to adaptation. Different vocal styles will still totally work. Different instrumentation, or varying skill levels with your musicians, will not make-or-break these songs.
Verdict – I like it. Will I keep the CD in my car? Probably not. Will it be my new cleaning or design music? No. Has Vicky put together a dozen new songs that could ALL bless the socks off your congregation? You betcha. Should you download this one when it hits iTunes on the sixth? Absolutely.
In the meantime, you can download the song “Deliverer” – and the sheet music and lyrics – here for free.