MIGHTY WIND - ANDRAE CROUCH
After a seven-year hiatus, Crouch returns with the album of a lifetime, one that long ago took on legendary proportions as a work-in-progress. Though totally “contemporary” in production, on both striking new material (the driving, R&B of the irresistible “O Give Thanks”) and stunning reinventions of classics (”Softly and Tenderly”), Crouch draws far less from musical trends than from his own seemingly bottomless well of creativity. Guest appearances by Fred Hammond, Marvin Winans and Karen Clark-Sheard, among others, and strong choral accompaniment of the San Diego Mass Choir and the New Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ Choir, all serve to turn up the thermostat even higher. With clearly no need — nor the first thought — of validating his pre-eminence on the vanguard of modern gospel, Crouch boldly and brilliantly confirms he is the vanguard of modern gospel.Billboard
