Newboys “God’s Not Dead: The Greatest Hits of the Newboys” Album Review

Prime Cuts: God's Not Dead, Mighty to Save, Your Love Never Fails

Though this album is touted as a "greatest hits" of the Newsboys, a few qualifiers are need.  First, if your perspective of a "greatest hits" is a career span retrospective overview of their hits, then you'll be disappointed.  This is by no means a career overview record.  Rather, these 12 tracks are garnered from a small sliver of their career; they are the singles and album cuts taken from the years 2006 to 2011 inclusive.  This is the window of time when Newsboys left Sparrow Records and they were signed to Inpop Records, where they recorded 4 studio albums.  Second, if your idea of a "greatest hits" is one where the artist throws in one or two new or previously unreleased songs into the mix, then your hopes will be dashed.  There are literally no surprises, all of these 12 songs have seen the light of day before.  Third, if you take the titular literally, you will again be bewildered.  Not all the songs here are "hits." Save for a few, most of these songs are either minor hits or album cuts. Restricted only by the material they have recorded for Inpop Records, this is the best they could do in terms of song selections.

With all the qualifiers out of the way, let's get to the record.  2006-2011 were not the most creative years for the Newsboys. For starters, this was the time Peter Furler left the group and they had to invite dc talk's Michael Tait to stand in.  Moreover, this was the period where the Newsboys were pushing themselves far too hard.  They were churning out records in bullet speed rate.  And so instead of filling them with fresh and new compositions, they have often stuffed their albums with lots of worship covers coming from Hillsong, Kari Jobe, Chris McClarney and others. Thus, on this so-called "greatest hits" covers abound.  Despite not being a Newsboys original, of all the copious renditions, Newsboys' take of Hillsong Worship's "Mighty to Save" demonstrates creative originality. Their revved up metallic crunchy take of Gateway Worship's "Revelation Song" and guitar-rock makeover of Chris McClarney's "Your Love Never Fails" show us that the Newsboys are artists and not mere Karaoke singers.

But there are cases where Newsboys even overshadow the originals. Though "God's Not Dead" was initially written and recorded by Daniel Bashta, the Newboys' version was so popular (thanks to the movie of the same name) that many began to ask, "Daniel who?"  The title cut of their 2010 album "Born Again" is one of Michael Tait's first appearances as the group's co-writer and lead singer and he does a great job by going back to their grass roots sound of a hard-edged pop over a message about the Gospel underscoring why the Newsboys are indispensable as far as Christian music is concerned.  Nevertheless, this collection is far too safe, many of their more creative pieces such as "Jesus Freak" and their signature take of Brooke Fraser's "Take Me to the Cross" are not represented here.

Unless you are a ardent fan who wants every released record of the Newsboys, this "greatest hits" is not really worthy parting money for.  The song choices are pedantic and they are only restricted to a small section of the Newboys' career.  In this day and age of iTunes, one could easily compile our own "greatest hits" without succumbing to an effort like this. And if that's the route you are taking, remember to download "Lead Me to the Cross."

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