3rd September, 2010

JUSTIN MICHAEL

Album: Born Again

Artist:  newsboys

Year: 2010
Label: Inpop

In A Word: Hybrid

I think I’ve been to this gig before - it was 1997, there was a band called newsboys and a band called DC Talk. One was bouncing about with alien ears asking "Take me to your leader", the other was introducing the idea that being a Jesus Freak could be a good thing. And suddenly 2010 brings it all flooding back. 

We’ve seen the tour, heard the sound, understood the melodies are bigger than the members and the ministry continues. The back cover of the Australian release disc features a pic of the newly appointed lead vocalist, DC Talk’s Michael Tait, out front of the newsboys in Toowoomba, Australia, rockin' the Easterfest crowd.  Basically, for these boys it’s business as usual. No more Peter Furler out the front, a newly refurbished vocal harmony set, some curious rock dissonances reminiscent of something Supernatural and the show goes on.

Born Again is the same expertly built newsboys radio pop you’ve come to love but with a harmonised twist, a new rhythmic intensity and a classic play on a rugged landscape unplugged film clip to match. When The Boys Light Up cannot hide the homage to Australian Crawl even if it is tongue in cheek; One Shot is the pop/rock you new was coming; Mighty To Save continues the tradition of the boys using a Hillsong track on the last few discs; and, as for Jesus Freak, well, let’s just say if it wasn’t there angry bloggers everywhere would let us know about it.

It’s got the expertise of 20-odd years of touring, song-crafting, ministry-driven, hard-working musicians behind it and you can tell. The negative? There’s been too much newsboys' product released over the last five years with no time to take enough notice of the songs, let them percolate and become classics in your collection.  The positive? It’s still great pop and, with Tait out the front, it’s still honest, fun newsboys.