Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Soulful music from New York's Montel Thomas whose music ministry spans a number of different styles. Although rooted in soul and R&B, there are elements of gospel, pop and reggae in different songs here. The problem is that the overall effect is an album that has little cohesion, there are little spoken tracks and introductions, fake sounding crowd FX dubbed onto some tracks which are frankly plain annoying and yet there are a few moments where the music is excellent. Unfortunately those excellent moments don't sustain the whole album. "Jesus My Saviour Is Real" is a winner with a cool slab of soul that grooves along and "Lord Speak To Me" is a piece of gentle contemporary gospel led by a choir vocal which is pleasant. Overall this album is simply trying too hard and not delivering much that makes me want to play it a second time.

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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