Reviewed by Jason Ramsey

Electric Church are an aggregation fronted and produced by Toddie 'Toddiefunk' Lawton who some might know as the bass player for TobyMac. This album was released in 2005 but has only now found its way to Cross Rhythms Villas. The opening track "Holy Ghost Thang" while being very poor lyrically does have something amusingly attractive about it with its funky beat and good vocals. I'm predicting that "Dance Floor" was written after the band listened to far too much Justin Timberlake. The song borders on annoying. Once again the major plus point for this track is Toddie's soulful vocals but in truth, it's not a great song. "T.O.T.W." is much better, the sound is much cleaner, the vocals are straightforward enough to follow through. Maybe a track I might stick on now and again if I'm in the mood to chill out and relax with a couple of glasses of orange juice. But if the wannabe Justin Timberlake song "Dance Floor" was not bad enough, for some reason they've remixed it for the final track. The remix is significantly different to the first but no better. Toddie is clearly a good singer who also knows how to get a funky groove going but much better songs than these will be needed if he and his band are to connect with the urban gospel fan.

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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