He Reigns - The Worship Collection

Album Review

The 2005 Newsboys compilation He Reigns: The Worship Collection, is a short-term follow-up to Shine… The Hits, in that it selects tracks from the band's last three albums, Thrive (2002), Adoration: The Worship Album (2003), and Devotion (2004), released since Shine… The Hits in 2000, plus one track, "Beautiful Sound," drawn from 1999's Love Liberty Disco. This may be thought of as the height of the Peter Furler period in the band's history, as Furler became Newsboys' equivalent of Phil Collins, earning promotion from drummer to lead singer. But the music doesn't sound like Genesis; it's much closer to U2, and that similarity is abetted by Furler's vocal resemblance to Bono. The difference, of course, although U2 does have some Christian elements, is that this is not a group that still hasn't found what it's looking for. It has found it, long since, in the Christian faith. The album is well titled in that the songs are full of worship, while the music is in U2's anthemic rock style.