BREAKING NEWSboys

I wish this was a news script and the above was rolling across the bottom of my screen and my headline would go “NEWSBOYS: In The Hands of God”. I would then begin to elaborate on the Newsboys album of the same name. I must first mention my knowledge of Christian rock was limited to just acts like Switchfoot, Jars of Clay and DC Talk but over the past few years I’ve become hooked on the likes of Red, Building 429, Skillet and even Relient K. relatively young bands huh? This in turn caused me to neglect guys like MercyMe and today’s focus, Newsboys.
Alas this is but just a music review, but trust me when I say it’s about an album that’s as about as hot as a breaking news story. Newsboys have been in the news recently with Michael Tait of that group (you know, that one with two other white dudes), joining them on tour and eventually as a band member with frontman Peter Furler opting for a less dominant, behind the scenes role. Has this reduced the content of the news(boys)? Nope!!In The Hand of God is a project for everybody and it has something a little rare in rock music; lyrics that are simple, straight to the point and without any need for deciphering. The message in each song is as direct as a sermon of the pulpit and yet the album is diverse in style, from the Resurrection inspired “No Grave” to the pop rendition “This Your Life”. This album is a perfect actualization of the saying “once a soldier always a soldier” (true because Newsboys have been at this for at least two decades)
Of course Tait is not on this album but he’s lead vocalist on tour and I can’t help but just look forward to the next album even though I haven’t even finished “ingesting” this album. It would be interesting to see how this plays out though.
Overall this is an album you won’t skip through (except for a couple of tracks) plus it’ll poke your conscience over certain issues (uh huh, your character, habits…). I think it’s safe to say the Newsboys have given us the news verbatim : We are in the Hands of God!