Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Having long been a follower of Australia's Planetshakers I feel credit should be given to them for changing their overall musical approach. Where once they replicated the stadium pop rock sound of another, more famous Australian worship unit, today they've embraced a funkier club music approach which if not full-on EDM is at least less stereotypical than some of the megachurch/multi-location church worship offerings that are bombarding the worshipping Church. The opening song "All Around" on 'Rain Part 1' starts with an attention-grabbing sub-bass riff and for a few seconds I thought worship leader Josh Hunt and cohorts had taken Planetshakers into truly radical worship music territory. But then it settles down into a danceable though hardly original congregational praise anthem. As it turns out, "All Around" is by far the most engaging song here and by the end of track four ("Fire Fall") I'd lost interest. As well as the not very memorable words and music the other problem was the unison vocals. In my opinion unison vocals seldom work on CDs and Planetshakers would be better advised choosing just one of their abundance of good singers to carry each song. So, all in all, it's very unlikely that 'Rain Part 1' will make it to my personal playlist.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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