Reviewed by Tony Cummings

What obscure part of the Scandinavian national psyche is it that draws them to black gospel choir music? A decade or more back we had Choralerna showing that Swedish choirs had soul. Now Norway joins the unlikely cultural transplant. Not that, on the evidence of this their second album, the Oslo Gospel Choir are entirely derivative of call-and-response storefront church soul power. They probably realise that the novelty would soon pall. So the Oslos add pop and praise into the musical brew, many of the numbers written by that Norwegian rock gospel veteran Jan Groth and the album's producer Tore Aas. For me much of the material was dull and one of the few tracks that did make me sit up was a storming revival of the Ray Charles oldie Talkin' Bout You". That was a song stolen from black gospel in the first place so it's kind of nice to see it back in a gospel setting. On the whole though, a rather dull album.

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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