Israel Houghton – Going To Another Level

Gospel, Soul, and Contemporary Christian artist Israel Houghton came under attack on June 4th, 2019.  His second wife, singer and TV personality Adrienne Bailon, announced fertility issues, was accused of lying, to which Israel responded, “and how long have you known her? Please don’t do that. Thanks. Figure out who you are. God Bless you as you go.”  A similar incident happened on August 14, 2019.

My first review of his song Friend of God is highly unfavorable.  Perhaps Going To Another Level will do better?

In more positive news, he and his wife were nominated this year in the Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program for his song Secrets.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Israel-houghton-going-to-another-level-lyrics.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site!  Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.

1. What message does the song communicate?

These are perhaps the most generic lyrics I have reviewed.  I have more questions than answers:

• What does it mean to go “another level”?
• What should we keep believing?
• How do we go about persevering for our blessing?

I can garner a guess, that Houghton is talking about perseverance, but that begs another question: What is it that he perserveres?  None of these questions are addressed in these lyrics.

His goal is that he wants a “Your” blessing, whoever that is.

Score: 0/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

Given the massive unclarity throughout the lyrics, it is extremely difficult to find Scriptural agreement.  I have mostly questions.

Since there is no Verse/Chorus/Bridge designation, I assigned stanzas to each verse.

[Stanza 1]

Lines 1 and 2: What does it look like to go “another level”?

[Stanza 2]

Line 1: What is it we should keep reaching?

Line 2: What do we continue to believe?

Line 3: See commentary on Stanza 1, lines 1 and 2.

[Stanza 3]

Lines 1 and 2: What blessing is that?  How does one go about preserving?  This may be an allusion to Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32:22-32, though perhaps quoted out of context.

Line 3: See commentary on Stanza 1, lines 1 and 2.

[Stanza 4]

Lines 1 and 2: This is about perseverance, but to what? For what purpose?

Score: 0/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

If I cannot understand these lyrics, how can I expect a non-follower of Christ to do any better?

Score: 0/10

4. What does this song glorify?

I have no idea.

Score: 0/10

Closing Comments

Israel Houghton’s Going To Another Level is so uncertain, it causes me to raise questions more than offer my critique of his lyrics.  Such obscure words sharply and negatively impact his message, Biblical application, unbeliever’s interpretation, and inherent glorification of God.

I cannot recommend this for any church usage.

Final Score: 0/10

Artist Info

Track: Going to Another Level (listen to the song)

Artist: Israel Houghton

Album: Decade

Genre: Soul

Release Year: 2012

Duration: 6:03

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Updates:

03/24/2021 – Updated per repetition announcement.  Also, fixed several spelling and grammatical errors.