All The Way Up

Newsboys, In the Hands of God

The Newsboys as we know them have gone through several big changes in recent years personnelwise- the departure of Jody Davis in 2003 and Phil Joel in 2006; the short-lived addition of Paul Colman in 2006 (Colman left early this year); the return of Davis to replace Colman. However, the band’s newest record, In the Hands of God, marks the biggest change since the mid 90’s when the band transitioned from early members such as George Perdikis, Sean Taylor, and the late Kevin Mills to the group of guys Newsboys is today such as Davis and lead singer Peter Furler. Almost simultaneously with the release of the album came the news that Furler had decided to leave the band on its road shows. Former dc Talk member Michael Tait was tabbed as the man to replace Furler on tour, obviously creating a huge difference from the sound that fans have come to know and love. The question in many people’s minds is that while there’s no doubt that Tait is a phenomenal vocalist, will his style be able to fill the void left by the completely different vocal mannerisms of Furler? The YouTube clips I’ve seen didn’t sound bad at all, but they were different from those of us who are used to hearing that trademark voice of Furler. More often than not, a well-established band who tries to replace its lead singer usually does not survive (for example, the country band Lonestar). However, since the plan as of now is for Furler to remain as a part-time member who will lend his voice in the studio, album sales should not be affected much by the change.

Speaking of album sales, let’s get down to the music that’s on In the Hands of God. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Christian charts, and at #28 on the Billboard 200 – higher than any of their other albums. More than likely this is due to the fact that a band that’s been around as long as the ‘Boys have generally have a quite extensive army of fans that will buy anything associated with them; but it’s also a great accomplishment because the band has released many albums, so for this one to debut higher than all of them says something.

I was not that impressed with their most recent studio album, Go. I just wasn’t. Wherever We Go” was a nice party track, and “Something Beautiful” became one of my favorite songs by the band, but the rest of the album just didn’t do the trick, especially when it had to live up to the high expectations set by their previous pop album, Thrive (there were two worship albums in between, Adoration and Devotion). So to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from In the Hands of God. In fact, though I hesitate to admit it, I wasn’t planning on making the purchase upon its release as I normally would with a band or musician that I’ve been following for so long.

Instead, I listened to the thing on their MySpace.

I bought it after one listen.

In the Hands of God is that good. It only took one shot to bring me from doubt to make the purchase. It’s not nearly as good as Thrive, but most definitely surpassed the expectations set by Go. The album starts out with the track “The Way We Roll.” To me, that title is about as bad as Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You,” but the song is very good and quite reminiscent of the best days of the band when they were recording hits like “Reality, “Woohoo,” and others. I suspect that this is a result of the return of the influence of guitarist Jody Davis. The next song, “No Grave,” is also very good and discusses death and how as Christians we will not be held back by it. “This Is Your Life” goes the same direction (lyrically, at least) as the Switchfoot tune of the same title and reminds us that we need to live well and do right because we only get one chance. “Glorious” and “Lead Me to the Cross,” a song written by Hillsong’s Brook Fraser and originally recorded by Hillsong, are both quality worship songs suitable for an upbeat church service. The title track, “In the Hands of God,” is the album’s first single. It’s a good song, but is actually one of the weaker ones on the album compared to the others I’ve mentioned- so if you’ve liked hearing it on the radio, you’ll love the rest of the CD. The last track I’ll make mention of is “My Friend Jesus.” It seems to be the long lost sequel of the band’s smash hit “Breakfast” as far as I’m concerned. Its subject matter is serious but also works in a funny story about the writer being stuck on a phone all night with some corporate customer service line and being forced to listen to Celine Dion while on hold. To summarize the song, we all have to deal with stuff we don’t want to deal with, but if everyone was more like Jesus, it wouldn’t be nearly as hard.

Newsboys, In the Hands of God
Overall Rating: 7/10, “Good”