Phillips Craig and Dean

“Top of My Lungs”

INO Records

11 tracks @ 45:14

            This is the eleventh studio project from this trio of senior pastors.  It covers a lot of familiar territory of adult contemporary worship and praise.

            Randy Phillips says this record holds nothing back.  “Great songs compel you to sing-fresh, deep, magnificent and strong lyrics about the goodness of God.”

            Musically, several of the songs follow a bell-shaped curve; the song starts quietly then builds to a crescendo, followed by a quiet ending.  Don’t be fooled by the now-clichéd use of silence at the end of “Everything I Am.”  There are two songs left to go.

            One of the few songs that breaks the mold is the outstanding and refreshing “Tis Sweet.”  It features Phillips’ daughter Garland and Dan Dean’s son Devin and daughter Danielle. The combination of slightly countrified guitar and sweet voices of the ladies makes this a suitably subtle song.  I hope it becomes a single.  It’s terrific.

            “One Way,” with its emphasis on truth is PCD at their best and another potential single. 

I also liked the humility theme in “I Will Boast in the Lord.”   Our state of Wisconsin has been subject to the screaming antics of a tactless group of Pharisee Christians from Topeka, Kansas, who love to show up at military funerals.  They make a spectacle of themselves and attract the ever ubiquitous media circus.  Those self-centered pseudo-Christians would do themselves a favor if they studied Ephesians 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Philippians 1:18 and Colossians 3:8; let alone Jesus’ references to bringing attention to oneself.

Back to the record, “Top of My Lungs” was produced by Nathan Nockels of Watermark.

www.phillipscraiganddean.com

- Rob S.