Paul Mc Kay - 12/16/2011

Gungor is a strange fish. An American band that doesn't sound American. They oose Euro sensibilities and dare I say it, British quality as they play a gizzillion instruments, mix sounds and vocals and do so in a sensitive beautiful package. If you have decent enough sound system you should crank it up, lie back on the sofa and close you eyes so you can imagine their jamming with Jools Holland. They are probably one of the few bands in the Christian music scene who could play there and not sound out of place and inferior.

The record starts out with a delicate spanish guitar only to find the rest of the void filled by Chris Martin style vocals and equally sublime piano, drums, bass, synths and other stuff. The thing that sticks in your head is the sound and the simply honest vocals crying emotion, belief and passion.

Now what 90% of music in the Christian music world fails to do is finish it off so it doesn't sound like it was recorded on an hour in the back of a mini. Instead you get the crazy notion they spent ages writing lyrics, ages writing the music and money on playing about in the studio! That's how a band can go from sounding amateur to sounding like the main stage act at Glastonbury.

This is a band which started life as the Michael Gungor Band with simple original music with a hint of experimentation and no money to a group with stellar quality and great attention to detail.

Track 3 - Brighter Day does have classic feelgood American vocals but it sounds like it could have been recorded by McFly and in a good way. Go figure. Anyway, track 4 - Heaven - switches track totally into a soul funk vibe awaiting some Blues Brothers to show up and start dancing to before we hit the banjo led Southern worship of You Have My Heart. True it could be the title for a Hillbilly chick flick but it strips everything back to the simplicity of a single soul calling out to the big man in the sky to offload and say thanks for everything.

One highlight has to the anthemic Gungor signiture sound of The Earth is Yours. With quirky jingly sounds, classic worship lyrics and a building rhythm it almost breaks away from the earlier tracks to return you to regular worship albums which are 2 a penny, or a dime a dozen. The quality production, extra instruments and clever arrangements keep this from happening and keep it on track until we hit the horror movie sound of Call Me Out. Don't believe me but listen to the opening bars and tell me you don't picture the Addams Family!

I could go on for ever but you'd get bored and go off to facebook to update your status or something.

How does it all end? The penultimate track - People of God sounds like Noel left Liam for a worship project and wrote this before joining his new band. We Will Run brings it to a chilled out summers night kinda feel with Lisa (the lead singer's wife) addiing vocals and letting the listener down gently with the news that its all over.

Something to rouse your senses, let you smile, help you wonder and leave you thrilled you hitched a ride with this band for a moment you'll repeat when you hit repeat. If you're in a comfy chair as you listen to the haunting piano before the rousing finale you could be asleep before the album's over.