TopPick-Gospel

Kari Jobe

Kari Jobe

Integrity Music (Integrity Distribution)

0-00768-45502-9

This debut from Jobe, worship pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, will be a hit with fans of praise & worship artists like Laura Story.

Jobe’s voice has an endearing quality and sounds great on these songs, most of which are mid-tempo praise tunes and thoughtful ballads. Jobe is in her element on the slower tunes, which have several genuinely moving moments.

Some of those moments occur on “Be Still,” a beautiful lullaby, as well as on “My Beloved,” a stripped-down ballad that tugs at listeners’ heartstrings. And for variety, a few mid-tempo ballads pump things up a bit—never too fast, though.

All in all, this seemingly effortless album feels like a breezy spring day, and should win plenty of listeners, especially among fans of gentle praise & worship pop.

Gospel

Light in the Darkness

Freddy Rodriguez

Integrity Music (Provident-Integrity)

0-00768-45302-5

This live album was recorded at The Champion Center in Las Vegas where Rodriguez is worship leader, and it begs the question, “Can really predictable worship music still be really good?” If this doesn’t sound like an Israel Houghton album, nothing does.

But Rodriguez—who has a wonderful voice that at points sounds strikingly similar to Houghton’s—is very talented, and this crisp album instantly vaults Rodriguez to the top tier of this subset of praise & worship.

Light in the Darkness opens and closes with glitzy gospel tunes, and in between listeners are treated to a straightforward set of songs that range from brassy, upbeat praise tunes to mid-tempo, pop-infused ones, to slower ballads—a couple featuring a strong female vocal, especially “Alone With You.”

The album is most interesting, though, when the songs offer, in a nod to Rodriguez’s heritage, Latino flourishes. It’s especially enjoyable for instance when he opts for Spanish halfway through “Lord You Are Amazing.”

Rodriguez is pretty amazing here, too, even if he is less than original in his offerings.

Praise & Worship

Next Step

Melissa Greene

Koch Records
(Koch Entertainment Distribution)

0-99923-44342-1

Greene can flat-out sing, which isn’t so surprising as she’s a member of renowned Christian pop quartet Avalon. But she can more than sing—she can hold her own with the top vocalists of any genre. She does this in spades on her solo project Next Step, best described as Beyoncé meets Carrie Underwood. This 10-song inspirational collection of R&B-infused pop and show-bizzy pop-rock that often sounds like something one would hear on American Idol.

Not all of these songs work, though—some have that predictable, made-for-the-masses feel. But even the less inspired usually get lifted by Greene’s roof-raising voice. Her vocals are at their biggest and brassiest on “You Satisfy,” a testament to God’s goodness in the guise of a summer song for the car stereo.

It’s hard to imagine listeners not being able to acknowledge Greene as a first-rate vocal talent after hearing this mostly upbeat collection of Christian pop