Browse: Home / CD Review, Reviews / CD Review – Until the Whole World Hears – Casting Crowns

CD Review – Until the Whole World Hears – Casting Crowns

By JT • November 18, 2009

castingcrowns

Artist: Casting Crowns
CD Title: Until The Whole World Hears
Style: CCM / Pop-Worship
Website: castingcrowns.com
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Playlist
1. Until the Whole World Hears
2. If We’ve Ever Needed You
3. Always Enough
4. Joyful, Joyful
5. At Your Feet
6. Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)
7. Holy One
8. To Know You
9. Mercy
10. Jesus, Hold Me Now
11. Blessed Redeemer
12. Shadow Of Your Wings

When Dr Matt over at the Transformed Podcast (link) posted in our group that Casting Crowns was offering a listening room experience of their soon to be releases (November 17th) Album “Until the Whole World Hears” over at yahoo music’s Early Edition. I had a feeling I was going to be sitting here writing this review. I have always had a soft spot for Casting Crowns, even if I have a less than soft spot for the rest of the Pop Worship genre, and I was excited to be able to hear the New CD. After the first couple of songs I began to worry. The CD begins in a typical Casting Crowns Song, The Title song “Until the Whole World Hears” sounds like it belongs on their previous album “The Altar and the Door“. As I said I began to worry that this Cd was going to be nothing more than a continuation of the previous album. This isn’t quite the negative that it could be. Casting Crowns has a very set and distinctive sound that I find carrying through all of their albums. When done properly it gives the Band a signature sound. When done Improperly it simply makes all the songs sound the same. “Until the Whole World Hears” walks the thin line of “signature sound” while only crossing into the “What album is this again?” territory a couple of times.

That being said, The CD did redeem itself with songs that were just not the Casting Crowns sound. “Holy One” with a nice rockier beat and “Shadow of Your Wings” has a sound i can only describe as Rockabilly/punk meets Blue Rodeo (hows that for obscure musical references) sounds that makes it my instant favorite on the CD. The rest of the CD is filled with songs that are destined to be part of worship services all across the world. There is no discounting the fact that these songs are very well written and performed by a group of people who not only have the talent God has given them but (more importantly) the Gift to bring these songs to life.

I am sure that “Until the whole world hears” will be part of my music collection — Eventually — it isn’t a CD that I will be running out to buy. There are simply to many songs on the CD that sound just like every other Casting Crowns song. This isn’t a completely negative thing. Casting Crowns, live other artists (Third Day, Michael W Smith, Delirious) are simply so well know that their sound (for Good and Bad) Defines their Genre. The CD gave me everything I expected from a Casting Crowns CD. Perfectly produced music filled with life and emotion. I guess I just wanted to be surprised more than I was with single song on the CD that didn’t sound like it was run through the Casting Crowns Cookie Cutter. The CD is a very well made album but I am only giving it a 3.5 stars out of 5.0. While this CD is technically better than many of the CD’s that have gotten a higher score before it, I felt like I was listening to “The Altar and the Door” the Extended Cut.

  • Share/Bookmark
NewReleaseTuesday.com - A Christian Music Community

Categories: CD Review, Reviews
Tags: , , ,

About the Author

JT

Roadie for a Local Band and performing poet, I have been in the Christian Indie Music scene in Pittsburgh for along time and I have seen first hand how hard it is to get any recognition.
  • Casting Crowns was the group that introduced and hooked me to CCM. The music was challenging and very easy to listen to. With each album, I was challenged to improve my relationship with God and encorage others. While Lifesong was a little light, The Altar and the Door was a strong follow up. Now comes Until The Whole World Hears and, while beautifully glorying God, doesn't have much to offer and is a step back for the Crowns.

    The album opens with the title track and it is by far the best track on the album and the only challenging song on it. Most of the rest of the album is slow, worship songs. Now, don't get me wrong...there is a place for these songs and what we have included here does uplift and focus on God. However, they are fairly dull tracks. Take the chorus to AT YOUR FEET...it is very weak. Being a Casting Crowns song, I expected a little more creativity and feeling and it just feels cold and impersonal. The same goes for the song MERCY. It just feels very generic and not what I expect from this group. Then there's GLORIOUS DAY. The song is full of standard clichés like "He Took The Nails For Me" and "Living He Loved Me, Dying He Saved Me." Again, this is so hard to review because these songs are nice but coming from Casting Crowns, it just feels lazy. The other songs on the album are good but still not up to the quality of past efforts. TO KNOW YOU is a good song but still, it feels incomplete, like it could be much more.

    A staple of Casting Crowns is to challenge us. The first album and The Altar and the Door both included several songs to challenge our faith and were very strong. Besides the quasi-challenging title track, there is nothing else that would be considered challenging.

    This is a hard album to review. I love this group and this isn't a terrible album. But isn't really "Casting Crowns" and the songs sound like warmed over worship songs.
blog comments powered by Disqus
« Episode #4 Podcast Awards Flyleaf Concert – review »