NewWorldSon
Artist: NewWorldSon
Label: Inpop

Consider the diversity of diversity of NewWorldSon.

In the U.S., the soothingly serene "There is a Way" is tagged as their second (U.S. major label) album's first single; it becomes the Canadian band's first top 10 hit in a couple of cCm radio formats.

Over the Atlantic in the U.K., however, where the band's first album established them as an airplay entity to a greater degree than it did over here, the more upbeat and organically funky "You Set The Rhythm" continues their hit streak. 

Yet, NWS's sophomore long-player doesn't suffer from the kind of schizophrenia that so many albums Christian market rock acts two or three decades ago with broader radio play aspirations suffered. That's because these guys are weird.

That's a compliment. They're all over the place musically, in a way that I still think should merit them an intermittent residency on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion (per my suggestion in my review of their first album for another publication). They're goofy enough to incorporate biblically sound lyrics, encouraging both to saint and those yet to receive sainthood, with a panoply of sounds, ranging from boogie-woogie piano to spy&surf guitar twang and from Bo Didley beats to circa '64 British Invasion chord change hooks (and tango and...) and not come off as cheesily pandering contempo' Christian crapola. 

In their ability to absorb influences in a natural, unassuming way, NWS shares commonality with another great  Canuck act, The Band. The latter specialized in a swampier sort of rootsiness-and surely never quite broached the loungey jazz metal of NWS's "That's Exactly (How I Like It)"-but the respect for American musical nooks and crannies American pop musicians have been ignoring links NWS to their forebears with "The Weight." 

And if NWS is ripe for adult-album-alternative and Americana radio's picking, soul gospel outlets ought to bend their collective ear , too. Yes, the Afrimerican church community's music seems to be growing slicker by the minute, but if a silky white dude crooner such as Robin Thicke can score at r&b stations, why not these fellas of European extraction with the calypso-minded "Total Eclipse" and the straight-up Golden Age gospelly goodness of "Weary"? Come on, Bobby Jones, follow the lead I've been trying to give Keillor, and put them on your BET show, OK?

Breath of fresh air as NWS remains, the affection of Caribbean accents over a soca beat in their " Jamaican Praise Medley" strikes a smidgen of a false note amid the band's otherwise joyous noise.    

I recall a discussion on a certain Tennessean pop/hot adult-contempo Christianny radio satellite feed about how NWS are wonderful, but essentially non-commercial. Wrong! A combination of NWS figuring out how to appeal to Stateside cCm radio's surfeit of suburban soccer mom listeners without sacrificing their musical souls and the right associations (it can't hurt them to be on the Newsboys' label and opening for them in concert, yes?) is raising their domestic profile commensurate to their talent and originality. May they continue to keep the Lord and their jovial weirdness st the forefront of a sound that deserves all the more exposure.

Jamie Lee Rake