Traditional gospel music and the updated sounds of its modern practitioners remain the standard by which all Christian pop music should be judged, for it is in the gospel genre where emotion, message, and performance most often combine to maximum effect. And few modern gospel singers do it as well as five-time Grammy winner Larnelle Harris.
Harris's new album, Unbelievable Love, isn't traditional gospel but a delicious, uplifting mix of R&B, pop, grand ballads, and even a little rock 'n' roll, all seasoned by elements of the classic gospel choir. Harris's music has grown over 13 albums from the more traditional gospel sound of his earliest mid-1970s albums to encompass a variety of styles. (That's no surprise: the Danville, Kentucky, native majored in music in college, studying classical music theory by day and playing drums in a Top 40 band at night-internalizing Elizabethan love songs at the same time as James Brown and Ray Charles.) Still, Unbelievable Love is gospel music in its broadest sense, a joyous, freewheeling celebration of the good news of Jesus Christ.
"I'm not locked into any one style of music," Harris explains. "I want to write or find the greatest lyric I can, and then wrap it in the kind of music that makes it live."
He's largely succeeded with Unbelievable Love, an album whose up-tempo tracks fairly jump out of the stereo speakers and whose ballads demand you listen closely. God's endless love and grace are the album's theme, and Harris's rich, powerful pipes carry the message well-though the production, by two music producers whose credits include albums for pop stars Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand, and Journey's vocalist Steve Perry occasional wraps Harris's vocals in too many strings and harmony vocals.
No matter, though, Unbelievable Love is still a fine 46 minutes of spiritual encouragement and musical enjoyment. The album's title track sets the tone for the whole album, which alternates between foot-tapping anthems stuffed with background vocal choirs, succulent string sections, between a pounding pace and slower, more reflective ballads. "Unbelievable Love" kicks off the album with a deceptively mid-tempo rhythm track and Harris sings quietly, "I look at the stars/I am amazed at what I see/Feel the sun on my face/I'm overwhelmed by the reality that/The Creator is my Savior and friend."
With each line, with each syllable of each word, the tempo picks up a bit until Harris reaches the chorus, where he fairly shouts with glee: "Unbelievable! Unbelievable love!/It's so hard to understand./Inconceivable that the Lord of it all/Can take me just as I am." By the end of the song, it's become a hair-raising gospel aria that will get your head bobbing and your feet tapping unless you have no pulse.
As if to let you catch your breath, Harris put a slow ballad, "Walkin' With My Lord," next on the record, but he doesn't let you rest for long; the next song, "I Look to You," is a mid-tempo pop number with a message of relying on God rather than self. The pattern of alternating between slow numbers and foot-stomping continues as the songs alternate between communicating the solemn awesomeness of God's love ("No Wonder They Call Him Savior," "One Day," "Walkin' with My Lord") and reveling in the sheer joy of it (the mid-tempo R&B song "Cross the Line," the gospel rocker "Stand Up and Be Counted").
"He Loved Me with a Cross" closes the album with essentially the same message as the title song that opens the record, but Harris's approach this time is completely different. Where "Unbelievable Love" frolics in exultation, "He Loved Me with a Cross" is a towering gospel ballad that retells the story of Jesus' crucifixion.
"Though I could not imagine/What loving me cost/Jesus went to Calvary/And loved me with a cross," Harris sings in the anthem's climax.
It's a message that should make you want to hit the "repeat" button on your CD player, and let it cycle back to the album's first track. Go ahead-the album's 46 minutes long; salvation, in all its astonishing joy, is forever.
Bill Hobbs is a reviewer for Christian music publications. He lives in Nashville, TN.
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