Live Worship + Rescue proves one thing about the CCM world: they will beat a horse even to the point where no one realizes it still draws breath. Yet another adult contemporary modern worship album, NewSong jumps on the latest bandwagon with this disc.
This is a band that travels much better in person than on disc. As with most worship discs, it is filled with contemporary worship tunes written by other people that you can find in almost any large church on Sunday morning. Granted, your band probably doesn't play this well, but do we need another album that features "Blessed Be the Name", "You Are Holy" (way too long on this disc), or "My Glorious"?
"Psalm 40" is not a U2 remake, nor is the result nearly as good as the Irish band's "40". Just in case we forget we are in a worship concert, the band includes two tracks of in between song banter. A rearranged version of "Arise My Love" closes out the disc.
As always, NewSong plays well, and sings fairly well. Their fanbase will love this album, and hate the tone of this review. But my own preference would be for them to release an album of all new material, rather than take the advice of some corporate body who wants them to conform to the latest trend, and that is what this album feels like to me.
Originality -- 2 tocks. Musicianship -- 3 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2005Reviewed by Burton WrayIn recent years, countless contemporary groups and artists have released worship albums, including Kutless, Michael W. Smith, Newsboys, and many, many more. Newsong steps up to the plate with this new project. The group has included worship songs in their concert sets for years, so it is not much of a surprise that the group has decided to release a worship album. The group does manage to throw…Similar sounding releases
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