Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Pop music history has its fair share of acts who've ceased to be groups per se but rather successful brands. For such acts changing personnel doesn't seem to matter, what counts is they continually modify their stylistic approach to keep in step with the quixotic changes in youth pop music tastes. Newsboys have successfully changed and changed again down the years and now their latest incarnation has taken a further step into X Factor pop dance territory. No doubt long-in-tooth followers will bitterly miss the brand abandoning the last vestiges of rock music but for a young audience keen to find an alternative to the vapid emptiness or undisguised hedonism of TV talent searches and clubdom there is much to enjoy and dance to and on the one or two slow songs (like the wistful ballad "That Home") chill out and think on the lyrics. And clever lyrics are something the Newsboys HAVE retained down the years. Take the EDM "Disaster" ("Since the day I was born/I was broken and torn/So human, so incomplete") or the anthemic "Fishers Of Men" ("Seven billion people on a spinning ball/And they all mean the world to you/It's times like these that I feel so small/There must be something I can do"). A bevy of top CCM producers including Chris Stevens, Seth Mosley, Joshua Silverburg (Edison Glass), Kipp Williams, David Garcia and John White (Capital Kings) all play their parts in punching home the hooks while frontman Michael Tate gives possibly his finest vocal performance since leaving dc Talk on the piano ballad "That Home", a poignant reflection of a Godly mother's love ("In that home we knew we were safe to be young enough to dream/Find the faith to believe"). Wherever you look you'll find cleverly conceived, expertly executed and, most important, spiritually uplifting pop music. The Newsboys are clearly still a brand leader.

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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