You Deliver Me

Album Review

Time after time, inspirational stalwarts Selah refuse to fix what ain't broken. You could transfer the trio's entire discography to an iPod, put the device on shuffle mode, and not know where each song belongs in their trajectory. And Selah would rather have it that way: You Deliver Me, their sixth full-length in a decade, bears all the hallmarks of past glories: serene piano-based hymns, inspirational ballads, the occasional barnstorming praise song, and, of course, the requisite African-tinged number. Play for play, this is the Selah that has sold more than two million albums, won award after award, and declined to pander to CCM's worldly fluctuations. There's one exception, and it's bound to leave fans nonplussed: inexplicably, Selah decided to take Brooke Fraser's "Hosanna," a popular Hillsong anthem, and do absolutely nothing with it: it's a near replica of the original, an alterna-rock piece that, save for some vocal interplay between Todd Smith and Amy Perry, sounds completely out of character for the threesome. Barring that, Selah is perhaps the only unoriginal true original left in Christian music, a group that sticks to its classic guns while everyone else chases the latest flavor of the moment.