Released 25 years ago today, this is Michael W. Smith's 12th studio album and his first instrumental album. Smith was by this time one of the kings of Christian pop and had become widely known in Christian circles for working with Amy Grant and writing songs like "Friends" and "Agnus Dei". But for this album, he went in a completely different direction and wrote 12 tracks of instrumental music. It's clear that most of this was originally conceived on piano and the piano is a big part of most of these songs, but there's also an orchestra for many of these beautiful tracks. Songs like the opening title track and "Freedom Battle" sound like they could be from a climactic moment in some unseen movie. "Hibernia" is a lilting tune played on Irish pipes, primarily, adding a very Irish flair to the middle of the album. And a choir appears on "The Call", along with a bit of gibberish vocals from Michael W. Smith himself bringing a bit of his normal poppy feel. Near the end there's a beautiful instrumental arrangement of "Thy Word", an original song that was on an Amy Grant album over 15 years before. This is a beautiful 41 minutes of music that I highly recommend you check out if you have not heard before. It is the album from Michael W. Smith I listen to most often.

Release Year: 2000
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