“When Your Life Was Low” – Men of Standard

“When Your Life Was Low”
Men of Standard
From the Muscle Shoals Sound Gospel CD
Men of Standard Greatest Hits (in stores June 2, 2009)
www.malaco.com

Gospel quartet Men of Standard takes Joe Sample’s “When Your Life Was Low” to a higher plane.

Oozing with melancholy, Sample’s composition is about being a long-forgotten rung on a loved one’s latter to success. In Men of Standard’s hands, however, the lyrics serve as a gentle but firm rejoinder to backsliders. To those who love Jesus only when they are down and out but forget him when things get better, the quartet points out that “the world will change again.”

As on Sample’s 1999 version of his composition (a marvelous recording featuring vocalist Lalah Hathaway), a low-key, lonely saxophone riffs blue in the background.

On the full-length album, Men of Standard blends “When Your Life Was Low” with Andrae Crouch’s “Always Remember.” “Always Remember” endorses the moral of “When Your Life Was Low,” but in the hushed solemnity of an altar call. Both are new tracks on the quartet’s greatest hits compilation, due out June 2.