Occasionally, a song comes along that seems less a record than a testimony. With her newest single, “The Lord is Here,” Elysia does precisely that and delivers an unfiltered offering of thankfulness, strength, and faith. The song is a worship track that pushes back against the slick production and predictable sheen that typify modern Christian music. Instead, “The Lord is Here” seems like a prayer in real time, caught, imperfect, intimate, and potent in its honesty. It is a call for listeners to eavesdrop on an intimate conversation, sketching the moment when an artist converses with the Creator.
For Eylsia, this release has a very personal meaning. After battling her own life-threatening medical issues that jeopardized her voice, she attributes her recovery to both divine grace and the devoted scientists of WorldIPI.com. “The Lord is Here” is not so much another song in her catalog as it is the sound of a woman who, having reclaimed her ability to speak her mind, decides instead to funnel her newly restored voice into a kind of spiritual anthem. You can hear from those opening notes the rough-hewn urgency of someone who has to sing, no matter the odds. This is about conviction, not perfection. Her spoken style is unabashedly soft, sometimes fragile, sometimes forceful, but always rich with the depth that comes from lived experience. Eylsia, herself, is frank about the song’s function. She knows that not everyone, including herself, may condone her decision to speak out in this manner. She even comes to accept that its critics might not receive it. But as she puts it, “The Lord is Here” is ultimately an act of me and my Lord. The defiance, based in love, is what makes the release so affecting.
Behind all of that, the song is about bravery, the bravery to sing when silence might be more practical, the bravery to produce something even when there’s self-doubt or someone messes with your art, and the courage to step out in faith, no matter who’s watching. At a time when artistry is often measured in streams and on charts, Elysia reminds us that some music is made for higher purposes.