29th May, 2009

JUSTIN MICHAEL

Album: Deeper

Artist: Planetshakers

Year: 2009
Label: Indie
Web: www.planetshakers.com
 

In A Word: Keeper

With the lion's share of the writing done by Josh Hunt, there are some new ideas here to discover if you're a long time Shakers fan, but overall, it's pure Shakers and without getting too deep, get your air guitar out, turn it up and as they say at PS, "Bring the praise!".

Church tunes for the contemporary set. It's big, it's dynamic (some might even suggest loud!), it's hooky and it's full of shout outs that can make thousands of people sing in tune at the same time...or at least that's the idea!

The live sounds of driving pop-rock are always assured when pressing play on a Shakers disc. The Victory gets the feet, the fists and the 'whoa-oh' vocals going, and so begins a journey of 11 new tracks.

You Are Good grunts into life with a guitar riff that Soundgarden would be proud of, then twists somehow into a hooky disco chorus that proclaims "You are good all the time and Your love endures forever".

There's always a healthy dose of affirmation with Planetshakers and Deeper is no exception with tracks like Nothing Is Impossible, Believe and the synth rock of All The Praise.

A disc like this is always a little hard to review as the net effect of these tunes is not measured by CD sales or chart success (although these guys could chalk up some good stats in both columns). It really is about the connection of music to message and of message to action.

With the lion's share of the writing done by Joth Hunt, there are some new ideas here to discover if you're a long time Shakers fan, but overall, it's pure Shakers and without getting too deep, get your air guitar out, turn it up and as they say at PS, "Bring the praise!".