CD Review: Poet Voices "Grace and Glory"

Grace and Glory - This song has a pretty distinct contemporary flavor, with a cool electric guitar track playing continuously in the background.  Even though I don’t like some progressive songs, I have to admit that this is a great one.  The other contender for first place in the “best fast song” category would be “Love of Christ.”

Get Away - Hearing the first part of the song, I wasn’t too impressed.  It has redeeming qualities though.  Not quite halfway through, the organ comes in, and then some other instruments (drums and more guitars mainly) join to harmonize with the electric guitar(s) that had previously carried the soundtrack.  The music really sounds like a soundtrack for a movie like Fireproof or Facing the Giants.

I Am Redeemed - This may be the strongest ballad on Grace and Glory.  The orchestration isn’t extremely heavy, though it does climax, especially toward the end.  The track has some great horn and string sounds.  I was elated…no, that’s too strong of a word…I was glad to hear the group sing part of another song near the end.  Another song titled “I Am Redeemed”:

I am redeemed by love divine, glory, glory Christ is mine, he’s mine!
All to him I now resign, Jesus loosed the chains of sin and set me free.


I’ll Fly Away - While I did enjoy “Grace and Glory” which had a contemporary flavor, I’m not wild over this one.  The beat, as well as the electric guitars, is a little heavy for me.  And the way they handled the verses…well, it’s just not my favorite style.  It’s okay, but not as good as the other up-tempo songs.

Jesus Built a Bridge - This isn’t a bad song, even though it may not get as much attention as some of the others.  When I listened to it for the first time, it reminded me of a part pamphlet, part book I read before.  The pamphlet depicted two cliffs, with a deep hole in between them.  On one cliff was Jesus, Salvation, eternal life, ect.  On the other side was a group that wanted to get to God.  How did they get over?  There was no bridge.  But the way to God was across the canyon (across = a cross).  A simple illustration?  Maybe, but that has stayed in my mind since I read it.  For some reason, the line that says “With only three nails and two pieces of wood”, along with the title of the song, reminded me of that pamphlet/book.

Love of Christ - This song is awesome!  I love the beat, the music, the chorus, the key change, everything!  I also enjoyed hearing part of the hymn “My Saviour’s Love,” even though the group only sang one or two lines.  It’s a great song with great lyrics.  One of the lines that caught my attention was this one:

It’s the unexplainable, uncontainable, wonderful love of Christ.


It’s the part of the song where they had to sing quickly to get everything in!

Comments:
I’ve never really listened to Poet Voices much.  Of course I’ve heard at least part of their popular song “Stepping Stones,” as well as two or three others, but for the most part I haven’t kept up with their music.  I’m glad I listened to this album though!

Even though there are only six songs, almost every one of them are awesome.  The exception, IMHO, would be “I’ll Fly Away.”  But, hey, five out six ain’t bad!  Three of them (Grace and Glory, I Am Redeemed, Love of Christ) are five-star material.  The other two (Get Away, Jesus Built a Bridge) will likely, for me at least, rate according to the mood I’m in.

If you have five extra dollars to spend, head on over to http://philcrossmusic.com/store/store-poet-voices/ and buy a digital download of Grace and Glory.

CD Rating: 5 stars
Favorite Songs: “Grace and Glory,” “I Am Redeemed,” “Love of Christ”
Main Styles: Progressive; Mild contemporary

Review copy provided by artist; a positive review was NOT required.