Recollection: The Best of Nichole Nordeman (Compact Disc)

Sometimes life’s journey feels like a 6,000 square-foot board game. And instead of mile-markers that read “lose a turn” or “back to START,” they may state “graduation,” “wedding”—life-impacting moments. With her new album, Recollection, Nichole Nordeman introduces two new tracks and pulls 15 mile-marker songs from four albums that have done far more than sell almost 1 million copies, win nine GMA Dove Awards and land five No. 1 radio singles. They have allowed audiences to walk alongside her life journey.

Whether pleading to God to be “real somehow” in “Real to Me” or humbling her questions to praise in “Holy,” Nordeman is transparent in songs about faith’s ups and downs.

Her two new songs, “Sunrise” and “Finally Free,” are no different. Raising the popular “time machine” question in lead single “Sunrise,” Nordeman asks herself if she could go back and make her life easier, would she? She answers with, “How would I know the morning if I knew not midnight?” Melodically, the minor, whispering chords follow the verses, until the mood dramatically builds instrumentally and vocally into a major key, as Nordeman proclaims God as maker of new beginnings—“You are sunrise.”

“Finally Free,” the new theme song for Women of Faith, quietly consoles the soul imprisoned in doubt with a ballad that centers on the John 8:36 promise of new freedom in Christ. “Let the chains fall away starting today/Everything has changed/I’m finally free.”

JENNA LUCADO

Review Provided by CCMmagazine.com

I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me
And I enjoy an accolade like the rest
You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all who's who and so-n-so's that used to be the best
At such'n'such ... it wouldn't matter much

I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights
We all need an “Atta boy” or “Atta girl”
But in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides
The temporary trappings of this world

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy

I don't have to look too far or too long awhile
To make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy
It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy

Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred
Just want to hear instead, "Well done good and faithful one..."