Love God, Love People (the London Sessions)
Artist: Israel Houghton
http://www.israelhoughton.net 
Label: Integrity / Columbia
Length: 12 tracks / 67:28 
 
Please excuse the pun, but this is the second in a new breed of solo projects from Israel Houghton. Not quite as musically impactful as The Power of One but still a worthy follow-up, Love God, Love People once again shows that Houghton seems to be at his best when unshackled from the 'praise and worship' genre. More creatively challenging and more interesting than his work with New Breed, Houghton manages here to reach vertically to God and horizontally – to his fellow man. If nothing else, Houghton's solo efforts prove that creativity, diverse musical formats, a sense of fun and energy, and strong expressions of personality are not counter to a 'praise' experience (I'll stop right there before this becomes a rant).
 
Featuring the impeccable talents of guest artists like Claude McKnight and Mark and Joey Kibble of Take 6, Kirk Franklin, and Fred Hammond, Love God, Love People serves up a dozen sonically rich tracks co-produced by Houghton and the brilliant, ubiquitous Tommy Sims.
 
As with his previous solo work, Houghton wears his influences on his musical sleeve, channeling (here and there) artists as diverse as Andrae Crouch (“That's Why I Love You”), Sly and the Family Stone (“Love Rev”), and Glenn Frey (the opening riff of “You Won't Let Go” instantly recalls Frey's mega-hit, “The Heat is On”). Even when the inspiration is over-obvious, Houghton's music never sounds condescending or derivative – it's more of a celebration of the musical stew that this self-described “black kid who grew up in a white family in a Hispanic neighborhood” grew up ingesting. Here you get a pop/rock format mixed with an urban underpinning flavored by black gospel and soul music. An eclectic, but delicious mix.
 
Each track on the album seems to transition creatively into the next with interesting musical bridges and sometimes ambient dialog. Obviously, Houghton and Sims put a lot of effort into the flow of the whole project, which seamlessly flows from funk to rock, reggae to gospel, and so-on. Within the songs themselves are wonderful breakdowns and tempo changes – creative segues take us into musical bridges and from chorus to verse. 
 
Eventually we end up at “Hosanna (Be Lifted Higher),” where Houghton pulls out all of the emotional stops with a full orchestra and choir in the Abbey Road studios, turning the fabled space into High Church with a dose of soul thrown in for good measure. The anthemic song starts out with all of the weight and stateliness of a Micheal W. Smith Christmas project and steadily builds in intensity as powerful drum work combines with the strings and choir in a worshipful moment that reportedly brought some of the studio orchestra members to tears. 
 
Free of the musical confines of the genre that has seemingly kept Houghton from exploring the boundaries of his potential, the artist gets to stretch on Love God, Love People and we get to hear him strut his stuff without looking over his shoulder. The result is an expression of joy and excitement about God's love, and a strong statement about our relationship and responsibility to our brothers and sisters. 

'sounds to me like something that might actually make you want to praise and worship.....
 

Bert Saraco
http://www.myspace.com/expressimage     
http://expressimagephoto.tripod.com