Risen.

A subjective personal first impressions review, while I listen through for the first time:

Risen is not another Come Weary Saints or Valley of Vision. Some of these tunes are so hookless and plain that if I had written them I'd hide them. The song structures and chords are sort of interesting, but without nice melodies they feel clunky. And they haven't broken new ground with the lyrics. Its a lot of "glorious" and "risen" and so on, and although there are a few songs that are more impactful lyric-wise, again the melodies mostly don't make you want to sing them. And maybe they don't rhyme enough, or something, because they feel off balance to me.

The first half dozen all sound the same, drums and gritty acoustic arrangements similar to the album Sons and Daughters. To Live Is Christ is the first song with a female voice and the first one that I sense is telling a compelling story. Jesus Lives might grow on me, too. The last 2 songs on the album are the ones I like the most: Behold our God has male and female vocals in harmony, which is my favourite thing at the moment, and builds into a quality anthem. Hail the Day has that military beat we all like and is melodically closest to the beloved irish hymn, so it doesn't matter what the lyrics are—but they seem good, if not heart-punching. It finishes with a bonus refrain on an old piano, and I LOVE a sweet old piano sound, so that's the highlight of the album for me.

EDIT: I missed hearing tracks 1 and  2.

Alive is all rock n rolly, very catchy and slightly naff, but I like a good bass riff. Oh What a Day is also uptempo, and confirms that "glorious" is the new "deep" for Christian lyric cliches. So the first half of the album isn't as weak as I first thought. People might like this CD after all.