Reviewed by Paul Poulton

It's 10 years since I first reviewed the WoW Gospel 1998 album; I sometimes play that first CD in the series, it's gospel music of the highest order and the spirit of the thing is still the same 10 years on. Some people may think that gospel music doesn't move forward, and that gospel devotees are a partisan lot and not happy with change but this of course is untrue. The forward momentum of gospel music maybe like the tortoise but in sure and steady increments it creeps steadily on, maybe too slow to notice over the space three or four years but 10 years after, there is a noticeable difference. Karen Clark Sheard, member of the seminal group The Clark Sisters and mother of contemporary gospel singer Kierra "Kiki" Sheard, may not be as R&B as her daughter but nevertheless is no slouch and pushes the urban gospel feel nicely forward with an appetizing four bar loop in "Be Blessed". J Moss featuring Anthony Hamilton sound a lot like an early Craig David in their song "I'm Not Perfect", it's not cutting edge but a move in a forward direction for the gospel genre. The two-time Grammy Award winner and very talented famous person Patti Labelle sings "Anything" which features Mary Mary, who also have a song of their own on here, the blues song "Yesterday", mmmm, most palatable too; it's from the 2005 'Mary Mary' album. Now here's a thing: you may think that with '2008' in the title of a CD it has to be state of the art which means "the highest level of development" and having a couple of songs on here from 2004 makes the 2008 thing slightly puzzling. Kirk Franklin opens up this double CD set and it was he who opened the CD up back in 1998 - how about that then? He's still cookin' and on top of his game and generally a treat to listen to. There are some safe gospel songs on here complete with tight band and gospel organ as in Lashun Pace's "Complete". There are more than a few standout tracks, The Tri-City Singers' "Encourage Yourself", also their song with Dewayne Woods, "God Is", and Israel & New Breed featuring T Bone "With Long Life" to name but three. It seems like out of the two discs the modern innovative material is on the first disc, but the second disc has its merits being more of a visceral pleasure than a challenging intellectual exercise, but that's what we expect from gospel music so it's probably a good thing that it doesn't change too fast.

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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