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Be prepared to set aside any pre-conceptions you might have about a solo album by a member of The Newsboys. Phil Joel has delivered a collection of songs that come across as sincere, introspective and confessional, but with an indy-rock edge. Joel conceived and recorded The Deliberate People Album in the garage behind his house, “To lock Nashville out and open the doors wide to family and friends, but most importantly to God,” and the plan seems to have worked – the CD is free from the slickness and sameness that renders so much of today’s CCM musical output ineffective and un-engaging. Songs such as “Changed” don’t break any new theological ground, but are performed with such a lack of pretentiousness that we seem to be hearing the message of God’s transforming power for the first time, and this is perhaps one of the elements that we remember fondly (and often miss in the output of the well-oiled CCM music machine) from the start of the ‘Jesus Music’ phenomenon: the ability to take the profound and reduce it down to a rock & roll song with sincerity, power and simplicity. 

_The Deliberate People_ concept was founded by Phil and his wife, Heather, and its essence is to facilitate and encourage believers who want to “turn their passion for the Lord into a deliberate plan to pursue Him.” The CD provides links to helpful websites that will take the interested party deeper into a program of Bible study, and more. 

OK – his intentions are noble.  Is the music any good? Yes. Joel wrote or co-wrote all of the music (there are a few collaborations with Phillip Larue, Heather Joel, and John Boyd), and also a great deal of the lyrics (along with Dale Evrist), and the resulting tracks betray little, if any, of the big corporate rock/pop sound of The Newsboys – instead, we get an intimate live band sound, incorporating simple drums, piano, guitar, B3 organ and bass. The lyrics are full of simple truths, personal revelations, Biblical scenarios and good advice, and are delivered quite impressively by Phil, whose vocals are confident but relaxed, and loose enough to sound like we were invited into the garage to hang out and hear what he’s been up to lately. The music isn’t about soloing or posturing – it’s about communication, and these songs succeed very well.

For a refreshing back-to-basics reminder of how all of this ‘Jesus Music’ began, you just might want to pick up this CD, play it a few times, and see if the songs begin to stay with you. Go ahead – pretend it’s an ‘independent-label project’ by someone you’ve never heard of …maybe put it in plain brown wrapper (we won’t tell anybody), but give it a shot.

Deliberately written …
By Bert Saraco 
(www.myspace.com/expressimage      expressimagephoto.tripod.com  )

– For doing what it’s supposed to do, and doing it well.