Taya (Like Gold)

Hillsong United's approach here leans into festival-worship territory — layered electric guitars, expansive production, and a chorus designed for mass communal singing. The song builds through patient verses before releasing into a declaration of identity grounded in divine acceptance: "You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing." The "Like Gold" subtitle implies a refining process, drawing on biblical metallurgical metaphor to describe spiritual purification through hardship. Taya Smith's vocal performance is full-throated and emotionally committed, with a naturalness that avoids the over-produced sheen of more commercial worship. The production uses space effectively — moments of dynamic restraint that make the full-band sections land harder. Culturally this sits within Hillsong United's particular arena-worship aesthetic that defined the mid-2010s global worship movement, where production quality and theological depth were pursued simultaneously. Best experienced at volume in a large worship setting or on a long drive through open landscape.