Worship. Seems like we've been talking about that lately in HM. The Christian music industry has definitely been meeting the demand for cool and fresh worship music in the past couple of years. I once heard a friend (Josh Perahia of Joshua/Jaguar/MPire) say that, "a trend is from the pit of Hell." While this statement has some definite truth to it, it would be hard to say that the current trend in the Christian music industry of releasing worship albums is bad. Sure, we might get some poor examples of worship as labels rush to join the bandwagon, but the Lord is being lifted up. Often these recordings capture some of the real emotion and intensity of people actually worshiping their Creator (as opposed to just performing or singing along). This album, fortunately, is an example of good songs. "His Banner Over Me" starts things off with a winning and well-known song, and Chris Lizotte's lead vocals don't hurt things either. The band features Raymond ("Sleepy Ray") McDonald on guitar, Rich Nibbe on bass, and Josh Lanting on drums. They keep the performance tight, and extend things where appropriate. Overall, I'd say the album does a pretty good job of getting my focus on worship right away, and then slows down for mellower songs through the rest of the "set." Things are picked up by the hot 'n' bluesy "You Keep On Givin' To Me," which is almost too fast for corporate worship. It's almost a break to stop and listen to the band jam. This is a fairly average modern worship album in relation to what else is out there, which means it's pretty good. The high point is very high, the music is creative (8 of the 11 songs are originals by Lizotte), and the performance is great.
