Phil Joel

It’s not that my expectations were low, but Phil Joel’s excellent work on this, and on his previous project, The Deliberate People album, caught me by surprise. I imagine that a big part of that surprise has to do with Joel’s somewhat subordinate role as bass player and ‘second-singer’ in newsboys: a big, Euro-pop hit making machine of a band (not that that’s a bad thing) with a front-man charismatic enough to reduce the visceral impact of the other band members – even one with the benefit of a wild mane of long blonde hair. Now that his newsboys days are over, Joel’s downsized solo career gives him a chance to shine (didn’t someone do a song with that title?), and shine he does, on The New Normal.

Coming in at a somewhat brief 35 minutes, The New Normal is musically mean and lean, consisting of ten satisfying tracks with no ‘filler’ material. There’s a little more edge to this project than we heard on Joel’s previous, more acoustic album. Right from track one, “Shout,” Joel shows us that he’s capable of rocking out with a very modern, Mute Math-like instrumental sound under his aggressive vocal. With Phil on vocals, guitar and bass, John Boyd returning on bass, Simon Gugala on guitar and Anthony Porcheddu on drums and keys, Joel brings us a tight little band capable of producing credible rock and pop songs with an intimate but powerful delivery.

Joel, his wife, Heather, Porcheddu and Boyd are the songwriters on this project, and have come across with some strong pop and rock music – there are hooks to spare, and even the songs that are more ‘praise’ or ‘worship’ oriented avoid the trap of falling into the usual musical and lyrical clichés. There’s a definite passion and an undeniable sense that Joel means every word he sings on these songs, but there’s nothing sappy or maudlin on this disc. On “The New Normal” (a real rock & roll song that I could imagine being done by The 77s), we hear, “Done with playin’ safe / Breakin’ away from what is meant to be a normal kind of life for me / Done with playin’ now…” and you get the feeling that Joel means it.

Joel seems to have found his Aussie Funk with soulful vocals on the ballad, “You Belong to Me.” The vocals on “DWYL” are aggressively delivered as the singer warns of the dangers of letting technology dominate our lives – “It’ll get us if we let it,” the rocker warns, and continues, “do you have it or does it have you?” “The Best Thing” is a fast-paced almost-techno track featuring double-tracked vocals sung an octave apart by Phil, and some tight up-front percussion that makes this innovative song about God’s hand in our situations a stand-out on the album.

The New Normal has its softer side, of course. There’s the encouraging “Call Unto Me,” the powerful mid-tempo “Every Knee,” and the worshipful “Carried Me Home,” which insert a more thoughtful aspect into the album without breaking the flow of the artist’s apparent vision of honest, heartfelt music designed to energize the soul, whether rocking out or being more contemplative.

One of the more powerful moments on the project is “Go Home,” a powerful, if low-key, rock song with a message that no-doubt needs to be heard by any of us that are tempted to fill our lives so full of work – including ministry – that we neglect what’s right in front of us: “So you want to save the world – maybe first you should save your family / So you want to save the world – maybe first you should save the ones you love …go home, go home, go home…” Joel sings the lines slipping into a high falsetto, sounding vulnerable, honest and passionate – you get the feeling he’s been there. Phil Joel shows us the good side of downsizing on The New Normal.

Tagged as: Phil Joel, The New Normal

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