one of my fave you tube tracks. Amazing live performance and a solid groove along with a mad conductor and a cast of what seems like hundreds of backing Singers-give this a special sense. Worship really does depend on how much you buy into it. For agnostics there is much here to associate with, when our Melonie sings "Raise your hands up...come on! "-it's close to many Soul Act audience participation sections-only a whole lot better.
My personal take on why I think this is better is due to the fact it's a lot easier for me to accept that Melonie is being sincere. She believes in something and it shows-this entertainment with purpose. This is Worship. It's not Modern Soul (though it ticks all the right boxes)-in the sense that it's some track on a radio show to sit next to say Incognito. It's not a Love Song (in the boy meets girl way)-it's a clarion call for people who believe in something (live by rules)-too feel good about believing in something.
Many years ago I wrote to Richard Searling who was a DJ on Jazz FM and said "in the future your shows will consist of 50 percent gospel". I wrote this because all the best tracks he played were Gospel. Looking back now it's clear I was lead by the sincerity I perceived when I heard these tracks. I'm hardly special in this regard the secularisation of Gospel has always been about drawing on this force.
It seems to me that today Modern Soul has embraced Gospel like never before but failed to explain why or acknowledge what these songs are about. I recall reading in the early days of EMS a well known DJ writing "I love these tunes but get a bit put off when they start going on about Jesus too much". This is like saying "I like riding on a train but I don't accept it's ran on rails". It's the worse form of cop out or it's simply saying "my ears think it's good but my brain doesn't". Music does not need to be understood to enjoy it-however when dealing with Religion -one of the great topics of the age to bring it down to this level seems wrong to me.....
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