Dove Award-winning and Grammy-nominated band MercyMe will return with their next project, All That Is Within Me, due 20 November.
The band is known as one of the few contemporary Christian music groups to have had all of their recordings certified Gold or Platinum.
Produced by Brown Bannister and recorded at Cider Mountain Recorders and ranch in Idaho, with strings recorded at London’s famed Abbey Road Studio, the band purposefully ‘got away from it all’ in order to focus on getting their creative direction straight from God for this project.
As a result, an album of songs “straight from Scripture” was created, says lead singer/songwriter Bart Millard. He adds that in many ways this record is taking them back to where MercyMe began, singing for the church, commenting that it is music “geared for the church, it’s what we do live, what we love, who we are, and what consumes us.”
The record features worshipful moments like “God With Us”, “You Reign”, and “Sanctified” alongside the more rocky and upbeat “Goodbye Ordinary” and “Time Has Come”, combined with very personal songs like “Finally Home”. “Finally Home” captures Millard’s thoughts about what he’ll tell his earthly father (who died from cancer several years ago and inspired “I Can Only Imagine”) about his life and how he’ll greet his heavenly Father.
Full of energetic, melodic, thoughtful, and memorable moments, this record aims to touch the heart of the church in a very real, emotional and direct way. Accompanying the regular CD release is a special collector's edition that features a bonus disc including a six-song live video, interview footage with the band, three acoustic versions of songs and a free ring tone offer.
MercyMe’s love for God, their families, music, and as many know, sports, is what consumes their lives, and in tune with these passions, the album’s cover features pieces of 56 photos from the band members’ personal collections, expressing visually “all that is within them” with images of family, sports, Bibles, pets, nature, instruments and more. In addition, descriptions of these photos will be a part of the launch of MercyMe’s new website on their street date (www.mercyme.org).
About the project’s first single, “God With Us”, (hitting AC/CHR/INSPO formats October 5), Millard remarks, “The whole idea that this big God would even look our way is mind boggling; it’s just an amazing thought that God would ever pay attention to us.