Casting Crowns - Self/Titled
Label: Beach Street Records
Style: Rock 'n' Roll
Released: 2003
My Grade: 4 stars
AMG: 3
Sounds like: Mercy Me, Steven Curtis Chapman, Caedmons Call


Casting Crowns can be simply defined as this: Worship music by the church, and for the church. The 7-piece group came together at a church in Georgia in 2002, and was signed as Beach Street Record’s debut artist shortly afterwards.

Their sound is mild and slightly southern-toned pop gospel, with some rock undertones (in the form of power chords) on a few numbers.

“What If His People Prayed” and “If We Are the Body” are pretty straightforward songs designed to encourage the church to trust God to take care of things and “Stop asking Opera what to do.” “Voice of Truth” is a standout track, providing a strong reminder to listen and believe in God’s good plans for those that believe in him. “Who Am I” is already a worship classic, it seems. It is quite easy to picture a congregation or youth group singing any of these first 4 songs.

“American Dream” is the lone true rock number, providing a taste of what might be if the band suddenly decided to abandon the piano and violins. Judging by the song, it would work quite adequately.

“Praise You With the Dance” is a song that goes full-blown southern gospel/country, implementing a violin solo and a just-plain-fun “yeee-haw! C’mon y’all!” beat. It also has lead vocals by one of the group’s female members (the normal vocalist is male). It’s not the best song, but it is worth noting.

Unfortunately, the last 3 songs are not up to par with the rest of the album, leaving one with the empty feeling that this is only an average album after the first spin. This is clearly not the case, because this is one of the finer batches of modern worship songs to hit the Christian in quite a while. Whether Casting Crowns can redo the high results of this album remains to be seen, but for now, Casting Crowns is a solid album.

Reviewed by: Christian