Light Your World

Album review

Newsong stepped into the vacuum left by the Imperials' late-'80s transition from inspirational balladeers to techno-rock icons. The Imps were too busy winning preteen souls with their well-moussed hair and snazzy pop production to provide the faithful with their accustomed dose of mellow sentimental religious harmonies. So it was up to Newsong, another quartet of middle-aged male vocalists, to sing the old songs to the Lord. Hence their increased popularity upon the release of Light Your World, which is very much in the vein of early-'80s Imperials in its balance of bombastic power ballads like "Light Your World" and "Not the Half Has Been Told" and snappier lite pop ditties like "Square Peg, Round Hole" and "Love Is." They aren't too bad at the act, though they have a regrettable weakness for chokingly sentimental lines like "The telephone never rings, no one laughs, no one sings/It's quiet there. Does anyone care?" and "I picked these just for you/Hope you like the color blue/Could I stay awhile?/I love to see you smile." They let up on the saccharine sweetness sometimes only to give in to a gratingly obvious lyrical gimmick such as "A square peg won't go in a round hole, no/Well, it just won't fit/There's not enough of it."

© Evan Cater /TiVo