Reviewed by Oscar Hyde

Dave Hanley, worship leader at the Dream Center in Los Angeles, created Press Play to spread the church's heart around the world. He's certainly picked an excellent medium, and used it well; this is no Hillsong soundalike worship group. Rather, the songs are minor-key, clubby, anthemic, built on catchphrases, sometimes reminiscent of the Black Eyed Peas ("Let It Out"), other times more light electro-rock-hop (the title track), yet other times more abrasively-synthy pseudo-house ("Just Like Lightning"). If I had to reach into the Christian musical world for comparisons, I'd plump for Group 1 Crew. The lyrics are at first not obviously worship-oriented - earlier tracks sound like fairly standard turn-it-up club hits, and the titular track's mostly a generic call for millennials to turn the world around. God's not an invisible basis of being here, though; it takes two-thirds of the album, but an explicit "God is the difference" shows up in "Change The World", and from there we get to hear "Angels Sing" and even "The Prayer". The music's not original, nor even the best of its genre, but it's reaching out to an underdeveloped field within Christian music, and kudos to Dave Hanley for expanding the ministry so cannily and thoughtfully.

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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