Riding on the coat tales of their highly acclaimed album titled “The Rock Won’t Move”, Vertical Church Band brings us a powerful album that will not only grab the attention of the seasoned lead guitarist but your congregation as well.
Production
Very similar in production value to their previous two albums, “Church Songs” packs the perfect amount of live atmosphere, punch and emotion but also remains very polished and radio ready. We would have liked to see something different done with the eq on the lead guitar parts. They seem to sit a little to far back in the mix and lack the punch that “The Rock Won’t Move” had. Overall we think that the production on this album is very good. Very balanced and we always give props to bands that can take the raw emotion and atmosphere from a live event and re-produce it on an album.
Musicality
We were impressed with the musicality on this album. It contains just the right amount of Vertical Church Band’s signature sound along with some bluegrass/folk sounding influences later in the album. That being said the middle of the album lost us at times and started to sound too similar.
Dynamics
Perhaps the albums only downfall is the dynamics. As mentioned in the musicality section the album falls flat mid way through and doesn’t pull the listener out of that middle ground until “Bound For Glory” get’s your feet stomping as the last song. Overall we would like to have heard some more of the folk influence that was evident in the last song throughout the album.
Playability
Most of the album will be very playable for most churches and congregations. This is what we loved most about this album. Overall this albums brings 12 very playable songs that can be expanded upon or simplified based upon your team or congregation.
Overall
While we felt this album lacked the intensity and dynamics that “The Rock Won’t Move” brought forth, we still feel like this is a win for the Vertical Church Band. With songs like “Bound for Glory” and “All the Earth”, the “Church Songs” album will be one we have on our Spotify playlists for a while.