::ALBUM REVIEW::

In the fast paced world of today’s gospel music, artists are jumping from one trend to the next in hopes of finding their niche’ and any way possible to expand their listening audience. And with praise-and-worship eating through the fabrics of most of the assembly-line gospel projects hitting the shelves, it remains impossible to find quality substance for the average gospel enthusiasts’ sweet tooth. But don’t give up so easily - some artists including Marvin Sapp and Byron Cage are actually learning how to work gospel around praise-and-worship styled choruses and are being smart in marketing themselves successfully for both arenas. One of the few artists one didn’t expect to see jumping in familiar worship waters include Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Youthful Praise. After delivering their successful independent project, Awesome God, in 2002, the famed church choir earned a reputation for delivering strong harmonies - emphasized with commanding vibrato action - and singing to eloquently sophisticated song writing done in the fashion of Rudolph Stanfield and the late Thomas Whitfield. But the choir leaped into abrupt changes as their next two albums (Thank You For The Change, Live The Praise and Worship) were released. The departure of co-director Shawn Brown may have been one of the highly transparent reasons for the group’s abrupt shifts towards accessible gospel-oriented pop. But it actually worked for Youthful Praise on their third project, Live! The Praise...The Worship. Strangely, the 2006 release remains their poorest sold collection even though it is, by far, their greatest and most complete work to date. It pushed them into comfortable, engaging praise-and-worship while carefully balancing strong gospel cuts into the array. But going from one change of sound and musical direction to the next usually can be associated with not being very consistent and sends a myriad of warnings to listeners of what’s to come. But Youthful Praise is now suited up to reveal their next phase of music ministry on Exalted; their fourth collection of music released on Gospelflava.com’s Evidence Gospel imprint.

Recorded live at the Church of the Redeemed of the Lord in Baltimore, Exalted finds choir leader JJ Hairston once again contributing a heavy work to the album’s selections, but this round features a lot of extra co-writing from outsider writers including David Caton, Leon Lacey and Claudius Craig. Much of Exalted leans on the worship format used on their previous collection and whether the song is quick or slow in its motion, the theme remains focused on worship throughout the project. The percussion-driven “Sincerity” and “Jesus Reigns” starts the album out and are stringed together like an Israel Houghton live event. The latter, with its bouncy and favorable melody, feel like the remnants of “You Are So Awesome” yet glides across even greater infectious phrasing from the choir. And the praise feels more meaningful here as the choir proclaims “no one can kill him...no one can end his reign.” A wonderful inclusion to the project’s worship agenda is the group’s sensitive rendition of the Twila Paris worship classic “He Is Exalted” ; recorded using a warm, tender approach and nicely gelled into Hairston’s companion gospel-tinged “Give You Praise.” On another track entitled “I Will Give You The Praise”, the song is gracefully embraced with heartfelt duet exchanges from Potter’s House director Steve Lawrence and Timiney Figueroa-Caton. The uniting of these two individuals vocally may sound troubling from a distance but exposes itself as a delightful concept bubbling with guaranteed results. This song, with its gradual climb of modulations set to a moving melody and YP’s big gospel sound, easily becomes one of the album’s rewarding highlights. And there’s more worship material to marinate through, including the upbeat modern disco grooves of “We Worship You” and the eight-minute Israel Houghton-inspired “Spirit of God.”

Remember songs like “Deliver”, “Garment of Praise” and “Spirit?” Good, because “Freedom” is a great return to those YP’s familiar contemporary gospel roots and contains a hefty load of self-empowering lyrics set to colorful Stevie Wonder-ish funk.

The sole moment of traceable gospel, while journeying away from the typical modern worship model, is the uptempo churchy breakout found on J.C. White’s “Satisfied.” Featuring lead vocals from First Lady Gloria White and a cameo appearance from Anyasha Figueroa, the song is groomed in the fashion of the historic Institutional Radio Choir’s big sanctified numbers. These kind of songs seem to appear on each one of YP’s albums and the tradition continues here. And even though fiery church numbers like “Satisfied” sounds good on YP’s big robust vocals and juicy vibrato, they remain album souvenirs of the currently-unpopular traditional church music of YP’s forefather’s heritage. Very few of these songs are acknowledged and make landfall on today’s projects, so the attempt in itself is artistically unselfish.

The group, not a first in this year’s list of gospel choir projects, also plunges into Contemporary Christian or “Nashville pop” on two of the album’s tracks: “You Are” and “Great Is The Lord.” Their strides in these camps are quite compassionate and are impressively believable for the most part, but do feel out of place from the group’s previous works and may fall on dry ground with YP’s longtime followers. Some may just call it a new expression of youthful aspirations in their creativity, but some might just call it another way to gain crossover appeal beyond gospel’s limited cultural walls. Myron Butler and Israel Houghton are currently doing it already, and the circle remains unbroken with Hairston’s ensemble.

The good news about this collection is that there’s not that many irritations that pop up here. The constant light hand claps on “Satisfied”, almost sounding like an outpouring of rain, over dubbed into the background comes to mind, but it’s nothing to really fuss about. Then there’s the disturbing song listing error, due to a last-minute addition of an instrumental album introduction, that knocks off the numerical order of the songs. Judith Christie-McAllister guests on “Glory And Honor” - a melodramatic musical workout that totally fits in the repertoire of McAllister’s sophisticated music style. The call-and-response pattern, featuring Hairston and McAllister taking turns in worship leading, works effectively throughout the song but whisks into a raw, emotional, soulful drencher overwhelmed by McAllister’s over-the-top soprano belting; turning the tide into a “perfect-for-a-live-setting-but-to-much-for-a-record” performance. And then Hairston - with his interchanging of safe tenor vocals and shouting exhortations - dominate most of the lead vocals from one track to the next. On YP’s first two recordings, guest vocalists would sing the entire song by themselves. Not so here. Hairston may be more comfortable now with leading and fronting the choir, but hearing this kind of a daring takeover from beginning to end may stir up the question if YP could survive without their leader. Beyond the light dissatisfactions, Exalted is well-produced with clean vocal deliveries and lathered with Mo Horns’ fresh brass arrangements. There’s memorable worship material tucked in the mix and a limited resource of gospel moments to delight over, but the album’s drifting from YP’s favorable formula used on Live: The Praise...The Worship into more pop worship is hard to really adjust to. It’s a different change and it’s one that will win some and lose some. Still, Exalted is a rewarding collection, but certainly pales in comparison to the stylish, consistent structure and the endlessly playable level of Live: The Praise...The Worship.