Hannah Westin (New Born Soul) and Erik Augustsson (Ultrabeat) have whipped up a bowl of contemporary praise with an Euro/house beat. Current church favorites such as "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and "Shout to the Lord" have been seasoned with fluffy, light synths, mad bpm's, and vocals as soulful as white Swedish kids can get. What might be the most chancy issue, is that anytime a certain genre is ascribed to the format of praise music, there is a fine line to walk. Only a narrow gap exists between being chintzy and making a genuinely noteworthy and fresh effort. On two tracks in particular, "Jesus, Name Above All Names" and "God of Wonders," the whole concept succeeds beautifully. Yet on other cuts, the endeavor to make contemporary worship (for the umpteenth time) falls short. One immediate thought is that while this is a fairly solid set of worship songs overall, they're the same songs that have already been done in every style, by every imaginable band. It would have been more interesting to see a handful of lesser known praise songs revamped, just to set it even farther apart from the more traditional "rock format" worship albums on the shelves. Aside from the occasionally borderline tendency of being too overdone, E-praise more or less succeeds in creating upbeat praise music.
Editors' ratings - Doug 3.5/5, Jason 2.5/5
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Bert GanglIf the dance music movement reached its peak in the US during the disco movement of the mid-1970s, the story on the other side of the Atlantic was a much different one, where a host of artists from Abba to Aqua have helped sustain the relatively constant popularity of the Euro-Dance and Euro-pop genres from the time of their inception two and a half decades ago right on up to the present day. A…The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Josh MarihughWhile BEC's praise and worship series has been spotty at best, with E-Praise they've unleashed a winner. With music from Ultrabeat's Erik Augustsson and vocals from Augustsson and Hannah Westin of New Born Soul, this project takes modern worship classics from the catalogs of Matt Redman, Hillsongs, and others putting a new spin on them. While the concept of electronic praise is not a completely…The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Josh McConnellUltrabeat's Erik Augustsson has teamed up with BEC Recordings to create a techno worship album titled E-Praise, in which he does the music work and some vocals but for lead vocals they got New Born Soul's Hannah Westin in to do the job. Musically, this album is done fairly well; Augustsson does a great job creating the techno feel. However the good music gets drowned out with vocals that are…
