Album Review: THE TWENTY COMMITTEE – A Lifeblood Psalm

[Self-Released - 1 April 2013]

Oh dear – here we go again.

I have been saying for some time now that there is no place in rock music for religion – of any persuasion – and it has been a great dismay to me that increasingly, and particularly (but not exclusively) progressive rock coming out of the USA, has had a Christian God theme running through it.

Alarm bells rang with this one as soon as I saw the title.

Sirens started wailing when I noticed that well-known God-botherer Neal Morse (Transatlantic, Spock’s Beard) was mentioned in the credits.

The building was evacuated when I read the thank-you’s – “to Him whose truth will never wither undefined”.

They just can’t help themselves can they?

If you have got a strong faith – that’s fine, just get on with it, but please don’t push your views forward as the only ‘truth’.

And don’t include a picture of yourselves as hard-ass surly rockers on the album’s cover – it does you no favours and is very misleading.

Right, rant over, now is the music any good?

Well, if you can imagine a completely new genre of music called progressive pop, with a Cliff Richard-alike vocalist ladling the syrup on whilst reminding you that you are only as good as your moral choices – you will find much to admire here.

However, if you are a devotee of true progressive rock with its ever-shifting time-signatures and biting, incisive lyrics – best look elsewhere.

The music is well played and you can certainly hear Morse’s influence – but, with the exception of a few bars of squally noise and the occasional well-phrased guitar part, the overall impression is one of prog-lite niceness – and, let’s face it, the word ‘nice’ doesn’t actually appear in the dictionary of rock.

All a bit of a shame really as the band can obviously play – but it’s all a bit like those preachers you see in city centres – you just turn up the collar of your coat and hurry by.

Review by Alan Jones

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)