Album title: Rise
Artist: Danny Gokey
Genre: Christian Pop
Nationality: American
Release date: January 13
Position in Discography: Fifth
Familiar with this artist? No
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? No
Check out more from this artist? No
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Maybe
Look, you can laugh but I'm not going to put a guy or girl down for singing Christian music. Eric Cartman once said that Christian pop is easy: just replace the word “baby” with “Jesus”. And he's right. But sometimes it's not that simple. So if a Christian singer wants to sing about how much he or she loves Jesus rather than Joe or Josephine, that's perfectly fine with me as long as a) they put some decent music behind the lyrics and b) they don't try to convert me. Follow these simple rules and we'll be fine. Hey, I listened to (and enjoyed, for the most part) a Casting Crowns album, remember.
However, I'm not quite as lenient when it comes to finalists for the likes of
American Idol, and our Danny here (who may, or may not be, the Champion of the World, at least in his own mind) is one such: came third on their eighth season, and so far has released five albums.
American Idol makes me wary, but then, sometimes good things can come of it: look at District 97 (what?) so let's see what we got here. Lord, for what we are about to receive ....
Oh dear. This sounds, when it begins, very much in boyband territory with a healthy dose of autotune. I don't quite know why I'm surprised: AI is not exactly renowned for turning out original acts, now is it? Well, one track in and he hasn't mentioned Jesus yet, so I guess that's something. Isn't it? Riiight. The second track sounds almost the same as the first one. Third, the title, is not half bad. Still no namedropping of the Saviour, so that's good. Okay, again like the Colony House album I reviewed before this,
Rise has its good songs but they're kind of subsumed beneath a slew of third-rate boyband material. In fairness, if I hadn't read the genre tag I would not have pegged this as any sort of Christian pop, so kudos to him for, as the Prince Regent said in
Blackadder III, keeping that Jesus chap out of it. But
American Idol looms large, and this is, in the main, very much the product of that bloody blight on the music scene. Ah but it's true what they say: the Devil has the best tunes!
