One of the greatest albums of all time begins with the soft murmur of an orchestra warming up instruments, then suddenly plunges into the raunchy “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and from that first song, you just know it’s going to be an exhilarating ride. (If you don’t know this artist and this album, [...]

Like the familiar parable, many musicians make the mistake of building their album on a foundation of sand: if the songs aren’t good to begin with, the record will never stand the rigors of time. Brenton Brown, the unsung hero behind “Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)” and 2008 Dove “Worship Song of the Year” nominee [...]

Worship leader opens up on his latest project, songwriting, and the challenges of leading.

Congregational praise music, with its single-minded themes and singable melodies, is inherently a dorky genre. The antithesis of rock music, it evolved from the primordial ooze of fresh-faced counselors strumming a guitar around a campfire while teens sang “Kumbaya.” Which is why it is such a ‘tall-glass-of-lemonade-in-summer’ relief when an artist like Jon Abel comes [...]

The adjective that best describes Carmen D’Arcy’s debut praise and worship album, A Place Called Grace, is ‘wholesome.’ The compositions are good, the pop arrangements satisfactory, but the defining flavor that overrides everything else on the menu is D’Arcy’s voice itself, which has a clean, sweet tone without a trace of blues or grit; she [...]

In the same way that a great song has a “hook,” something lyrical or vocal or instrumental that grabs you and reels you inside the song, an album needs a hook. There’s nothing glaringly wrong with Waiting, the newest release from Alabama-based worship band, Four Days Late, whose name is derived from John 11:17. The [...]

Re:Zound has teetered on the brink of success since 2001, when their thrashy single, “Angel,” helped earn them the dubious honor of “MTV’s #1 Undiscovered Artist.” Their early albums are characterized by anxious vocals, distorted guitar, and a sort of garage band frenzy, but Abandoned To You abandons these metallic roots for a more palatable, [...]

Ashmont Hill, the self-titled debut from a Boston area contemporary worship quartet, does not rock. Whereas much of modern CCM is characterized by driving guitar, the overall sound of this album is mellow and liquid; it washes over you rather than pushing you along the current, creating an almost ethereal tone that’s like listening to [...]

The country genre is like musical vodka: straightforward, addictive, and potentially fatal in case of an overdose. Richie McDonald’s I Turn to You, his first solo release since leaving the vocal helm of established country band, Lonestar, in 2007, is a smooth blend of two parts country (vocals, songs) and one part rock (instrumentation.) This [...]

A great voice is a songwriter’s curse (and vice versa, wherein lies the genius of Bob Dylan.) The problem is that terrific vocals can trick the ear into thinking a mediocre song should be recorded rather than leaving it scrawled on the back of a napkin where it belongs. And that’s the problem with Kathleen [...]