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Phillips, Craig and Dean is my favorite trio in contemporary Christian music. Do the guys' wonderful harmonies lend themselves to excellent praise and worship music? Absolutely. Let My Words Be Few is a fine idea, with a PC&D stamp, produced by Nathan Nockels (PC&D didn't mess around to choose the best P&W producer) of Watermark and the Praise Worship Band. While this project has its moments, it's too sweetly polished in some of the performances.

I salute PC&D for venturing to P&W (two many acronyms!), as the bottom line for this offering is indeed praise and worship, but I could do without elaborate string arrangements. I envision "Pour My Love on You" and the title track as very good songs for youth and/or church groups, but without the lavish orchestral arrangements. PC&D's renditions of Brian Doerksen's "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" or Paul Baloche's "Open the Eyes of My Heart," are absolutely beautiful, much like A Ragamuffin Band's "Make Me An Instrument," or Jeff Deyo's "These Hands" (from "He Chose the Nails"), with a Buddy Holly beat. Over-produced offerings seem to lose, as Matt Redman may say, the heart of worship. It seems to be either "worship lite," "worship pretty," or "worship top 40." I don't see myself worshipping to these arrangements of "Let Everything That Has Breath" or "The Heart of Worship," since Nockels worked too hard with these songs, perhaps to bring P&W to mainstream CCM radio.

Expect to hear the title track on the radio; it's enjoyable. But the string arrangement is borderline-boring. What I'd liked to have heard is Nockels' magic that he had with Christy Nockels and the string arrangement for "Holy Roar" from "Passion: The Road to One Day" for PC&D. Nathan just didn't stretch his muscles enough in this particular project, with possible exception to "Pour My Love on You," the clear standout track.

Phillips, Craig and Dean are better suited for pop tunes ("Favorite Songs of All" immediately comes to mind) instead of praise and worship. What would have suited me better would have been if the trio would have treated this project as if they were singing a capella, akin to the style of Glad. There are wonderful moments here, but Let My Words Be Few is not the stellar project I expected.

Olin Jenkins 3/6/2001