Various Artists: SlingShot 2011 Soundtrack

Various Artists
SlingShot 2011 Soundtrack
Strike the Rock Entertainment
http://www.striketherockentertainment.com/

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

“We’re a new generation…we say it loud!”

So announces talented newcomer Bria Manaway on “Say it LOUD,” the initial single from the SlingShot 2011 Soundtrack. And she does, they do, and the result is impressive.

According to what sounds like its mission statement, the SlingShot All-City Youth Conference in Tukwila, Washington, “gives youth and young adults the time, tools, teaching, training and transformative experience they need to deepen, grow and sustain their Christian faith.” Ingrid Fields, President of Strike the Rock Entertainment, got the idea to capture some of the flavor of the conference’s music and spoken word artists on a compilation CD.

The comp features songs written and co-written by Fields associate and inspirational innovator Michelle Lang.  A theme common to the songs, one that resonates among young people, is the desire to overcome human frailties and be more like Jesus. For example, on her “I’m a Witness,” Lang asserts that she wants to stay close to Him “when the world calls my name.”

While all of the singers are uniformly strong and genuine, two stand out. Seattle’s Mark Wagner sings his own composition, “There is Hope,” with the edgy confidence of John Legend while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. Canadian Morrissa Nicole Brown’s marvelous “What If” evokes Joan Osborne’s “God” when she asks, “What if we are the only Jesus people see?”

Not all the selections are musical. Tia Nache’ offers a clever spoken word piece called “iGod,” which raps on the vicissitudes of communicating in an e-world when the real thing is twice as nice.

What the SlingShot 2011 Soundtrack suggests is that Christian/gospel pop, with its messages of encouragement and empowerment, candy-sweet tunes and strong beats, often makes better pop music than pop music.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Like Him,” “What If.”