With a style pitched somewhere between Terry Taylor's fearless insight and Rich Mullins's warmth and decency, David Glenn's forthcoming album Not About Me is a daring musical trip into the heart of the "nouveau" praise and worship scene. Like many of his musical comrades in arms (Lincoln Brewster, The Rock and Roll Worship Circus) Glenn has abandoned the old clichés of mainstream P&W and forged ahead with a new approach that incorporates funk and groove as centrally as decent Christian talk.
The album kicks off with a passionate Wallflowers-styled title track that offers hope for the road-weary and burnt out traveler that together we can "share heaven on earth" and then it slides comfortably through the meditative ("Glorify Your Name"), the trip-hoppy ("Come Down"), the rocking ("Stand Up"), and the soulful ("Live For You").
All in, Not About Me is a rewarding project that will find a welcome in the arsenal of both listeners and players of praise and worship. That being said, the only drawback of the project is that Glenn lacks the lyrical depth of Mullins and Taylor. While many of the songs will find homes in the repertoire of various church bands, there is a slight cringe factor in play when he's setting certain "inside phrases" of the charismatic church circuit to a rollicking Dave Matthews Band beat.
Not About Me is still a worthy addition to the genre and I hope we will all be hearing more from David Glenn over the next years. With this kind of ability, he has really no need to keep preaching to the choir and hopefully his penchant for a fearless and rocking band will translate into his writing. Here's hoping he'll get to track with his inner standard bearer and he can pick up some of where Rich Mullins left off.
3.5 tocks
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