Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) seems to be chameleonic by nature, always adopting the protective coloration of some pop-music style in order to gain or maintain an audience. In their 12 years of existence,
Newsboys have been more changeable than most CCM artists, both geographically (having moved from Australia to Nashville) and stylistically. In 1997, lead singer
John James departed, and the group came to be guided by
Peter Furler, who assumed the chief vocal chores. The result was 1998's
Step Up to the Microphone, whose light-pop style found favor with the faithful. Its follow-up,
Love Liberty Disco, will sound to the uninitiated like a Britpop clone of
Oasis and its ilk. Furler emotes in an airy tenor which shades into falsetto over pop/rock arrangements that, like all the Britpop bands, mix the heavy influence of
the Beatles with more recent styles.
Love Liberty Disco successfully follows CCM's basic formula, smartly aping an existing pop style in a Christian context. ~ William Ruhlmann