Although the demand for Tim Hughes' music has certainly dropped since his smash hit single "Here I Am To Worship," his debut album (named after his Dove Award winning song) has still unfortunately remained unnoticed even though many of Hughes other worship songs probably would have been hits as well.

While Hughes's worship music isn't anything new, his style remains fresh, not sounding forced like some artists (like MercyMe's work), and his passionate vocals are both appealing aspects to his otherwise simple music. In the case of "Day After Day," a happy medium is discovered with a more complex tune than Matt Redman and, unlike Lincoln Brewster, avoids a repetitive song. "May the Words of My Mouth" has a basic guitar driven beat while still sounding fresh and accessible, although that mainly relies on its inspirational tune and the songwriting which contains the anthem for the album '(If there's one thing we are called to do/It's to love You, to adore You').

The only drawback to the otherwise solid sound of the light upbeat praise and worship song, "I'll Always Love You," is its unnecessarily excessive track length. Hughes's fine vocals take much of the heat off of the traditional sounding worship of "Day After Day" and his vocals also greatly help "Maker of All Things," which is already a strong song. The title track isn't a musical giant on the album but the emotion surrounding the song, plus the very popular chorus, "Here I am to worship/Here I am to bow down/Here I am to say that you're my God," is what made it so widely appealing.

Unfortunately not everything on Here I Am To Worship is uplifting or ear-pleasing. The soft "Never Lose the Wonder" is too simple to be a memorable ballad and lacks verity and passion. It's also the beginning of a very underwhelming ending of songs like "Eyes of My Heart" and "My Jesus, My Lifeline." The latter is the weakest point in terms of songwriting because a simple exchange of Jesus' name for 'baby' would make it a cheesy love song. Also with the weak exception of "May the Words of My Mouth" ('And I'll look not for riches, nor praises on earth/Only You'll be the first of my heart'), little new insight is offered by Hughes.

There is a steady amount of things to like about Here I Am To Worship besides the title track, such as his several passion filled songs and Tim Hughes' ability to offer a nice spin on already trail-blazed ground. However, the fact that most of Hughes' work isn't very original will probably be the deciding factor for what is otherwise a generally underrated worship album.

Review date: 1/26/09, written by Nathaniel D. Schexnayder for Jesusfreakhideout.com