Motown Gospel recording artist Tye Tribbett’s new album, Greater Than hits stores this Tuesday, August 6, 2013. In preparation for the upcoming album, Tye has released a preview of the project. Click play below to hear snippets of each song included on Greater Than. Also, check out the track-by-track explanation for all the songs as well. The Greater Than pre-order link is available now on http://www.tyetribbett.com.
“Nobody”
“This song is a fun opener to me. It’s very musical, very high energy. I love it. Somebody called me gospel music’s most ‘fun-nointed’ artist [combining the words fun and anointed]. I love that and I believe that ‘Nobody’ is a fun-nointed song and is a great opener for the album. I hope people walk away dancing.”
“You Are Everything”
“This is my favorite up-tempo song on this album. It’s very simple, but it’s so powerful. If you listen to it and don’t move, there is something wrong with your central nervous system. You can dance to it. You can play it in your car or at your graduation party or you could play it at church for worship. At the end, it goes into a slower version, a worship remix of the same song, which to me is the heart of that song. The way I sing it at the end is the way I feel it in my heart.”
“Stayed on You”
“This sounds like an old-school Pentecostal song, even though it’s from George Harrison. I think the older generation will remember it and like it, but the beat and the energy and the way we present it can connect it to the younger generation, so I see ‘Stayed On You’ as a bridge song. I want to have a song that’s aggressive about keeping our minds focused on Christ. I think it’s going to be a strong song and I hope that it does just that.”
“You Are Good”
“This song is like a chant, little two-liners that you can repeat, and it’s so good you don’t want to stop repeating it. My intent is to help keep our minds focused on Christ, no matter what our situation is. I want to put these words not in the mouths, but in the minds and hearts of this generation so we can begin to see transformation in ourselves and in our families and communities and our churches and the world.”
“Greater Than”
“This was one of the last songs that came to be written for the album. All I had was the end part. I didn’t have the beginning for a while. It took some time. The lead singer with me is Zacardi Cortez and he’s a great gospel singer. I love his voice. This song is aggressive. It’s a song that brags about God because the lyrics are ‘Our God does the impossible. Our God can bring light into darkness.’ It’s a song bragging about the greatness of our God. If I’m going to boast, I’m going to boast in the Lord. ‘Greater Than’ is our boast in the Lord.”
“Beauty for Ashes”
“This is was one of the first songs that came for this album. This is my testimony. This song is my heart. This is my favorite ballad on the album. It is the truth and it is a testimony of not just what God has done and can do for me, but for any and everybody. I was listening to it in the car with a friend, giving him a little sneak peak, and he said, ‘I don’t want to hear anything else.’ I said, ‘Wait we still have eight more songs,’ and he said, ‘I don’t want to hear anything else. That song right there is it!’ I feel that as well. This album is an album of encouragement. I pray that this song not only makes people say, ‘Wow! It’s great what God did for Tye.’ I hope it encourages them to say either ‘He’s done that for me too’ or ‘He can.’”
“Better”
“This is a song that needs to be in a musical. This is the theatrical side of me. I really want to expand and stretch myself musically, and I love it. When it comes to the message of the song, I think as Christians we set goals and we get discouraged when things don’t happen quickly, but there’s a line in the song that says ‘I may not be finished, but I’m getting better.’ I drew that from Genesis, Chapter 1 when the world was in chaos and God said, ‘Let there be light,’ there was light. The first day it was good. He said the second day was good, and the third day, and so on and so forth. God was able to look and say, ‘Hey it’s good,’ even though it wasn’t finished. He still had more work to do, but he looked at the progress as better. So even though the goal is not completed yet, let’s celebrate the fact that at least it’s better. With every step, things are getting better, and if we celebrate the small victories, that will give us momentum and encouragement to see the finished product.”
“Overcome”
“This is a cover from Jeremy Camp. I listen to Jeremy Camp. I listen to CCM and I love it. We were using it in our Bible studies that my wife and I hold in the New Jersey area. We do it in our worship set and I said, ‘I can’t resist it! I’ve got to put it on my album.’ I believe that one of my assignments is to bring worship to the urban culture in a relevant way. This is a song that I wanted to bring to the urban churches. We are many members, but one body. So this song was intentional in bringing the churches together with one sound and one worship. I had to do this song.”
“What Can I Do”
“I was at a youth conference in North Carolina and I heard the opening act. His name was KJ Scriven and the sound drew me, so I ran out to the side of the stage. We connected after that and we’ve been kind of inseparable ever since. He’s joining me on the song and is the one leading it as well. The song is about dependency on God. The whole Bible screams dependency on God. I love the song. I love the words.”
“I Love You Forever, Glory To God Forever”
“I Love You Forever” is a small part of a Hillsong song. It’s one of those things that you can get lost in and immersed in. On tour we sang this song in rehearsal and then “Glory To God Forever,” which is a song by Steve Fee, We locked in and said, ‘Okay we’re going to do these two chants back to back like this.’ The youth respond to it very well and older people really love it.”
“He Turned It”
“This is my old-school Sunday morning church type of song. It’s an aggressive praise party song. I guess most of my songs are praise party songs, but this is a praise party song where the old folks in my church say, ‘You pick them up and put them down, good ‘ole dancing around the church.’ That’s when you bring out the old-school tambourine. That’s when you may even bring out a washboard. You have a good ‘ole time. It’s a celebration. It’s like a celebration of God flipping it. One of the lyrics is very powerful. It says, ‘The devil thought he had me, he thought that my life was over, he thought by now I’d give up, he thought I had no more but that’s when someone greater stepped into my situation.’ God turned it around so hold your head up. Let’s celebrate. He turned it.”
“If He Did It Before…Same God”
“I’ve been singing the hook part for about five to seven years and then I wrote the verses to it last year. This song is a summer anthem telling the body of Christ to relax because you serve a God who’s got it all under control. It says, ‘Please be encouraged. This is not the first storm you’ve been through. You’ve been through worse. You didn’t come this far just to lose. You’ve been through something like this before, and he did it before. He’s the same God.’