The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts as One

After years of relative obscurity in the worship genre, Hillsong United suddenly has become one of the biggest worship bands on the planet—and they're clearly striking while the iron is hot. Just less than a year after the release of their studio project All of the Above, United is already back with another live album … and yet something more.

The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts as One marks the start of a new social justice initiative by United, followed by a DVD release in June, and the launch of a new online community in July. This double disc set is the culmination of 2 years of concerts from all around the world, representing 6 continents. Not that you'd notice from track to track. Aside from singing "Fire Falls Down" in Spanish, the recording is edited so seamlessly, it may as well be a single worship service—and maybe that's the point.

United also dutifully juggles between each of their albums from the last 5 years, in essence assembling a best-of collection. With over 150 minutes of music, it feels like every United song is included, or at least the best-known rockers ("Tell the World," "Take It All," "What the World Will Never Take"), ballads ("Take All of Me," "There Is Nothing Like," Hosanna"), and anthems ("Shout Unto God," "The Stand"), though I'm surprised "Lead Me to the Cross" was omitted. Thus, there's really nothing new here beyond the recordings themselves, but the album is better sequenced than previous live projects, avoiding overly monotonous pacing by freely alternating between fast and slow songs.

The production values are better too, with United never sounding more beefed up and exciting than this. The lively singing from the crowds adds to the energy, though sometimes it's unintelligible when the lead vocals drop out to capture the crowds' singing. I also wish there was more to United's worship leading here, which often relies on cheesy shout-outs like "Anybody here love Jesus?"

Can an album like this really inspire worldwide social change? And do fans really need to buy alternate versions of songs they already have to do so? Answer those questions for yourself, but With Hearts as One shows this band doing what they do best, leading thousands of worshipers in singing their hearts out to the Lord. It can be an exhausting listening experience, for sure, but the album is nonetheless well-made, proving United to be not just another worship band, but a world-renowned phenomenon.