Pros: Quality Pop Rock Sounds, Quality Worship Songs
Cons: A few mis-steps here and there
The Bottom Line: Lincoln Brewster is a versatile guitarist, with an engaging voice and a knack for crafting nifty pop-rock hooks. "Let The Praises Ring" is a solid collection of his best work.
bob_tomato's Full Review: Let the Praises Ring by Lincoln Brewster
Does an artist whose discography contains just four albums truly deserve a "Best of" collection? Well, sure, if you’ve got talent and a knack for creating some of the more interesting music in your chosen genre...
Since he debuted in 1999, Christian music’s Lincoln Brewster has proved himself to be a quality guitarist, singer, writer and arranger; Integrity Music’s 2006 collection, Let the Praises Ring - The Best of Lincoln Brewster is a solid, seventeen track retrospective of this established worship leader’s best work.
Drawing equally from his three studio recordings and his recent live album, Let the Praises Ring showcases Brewster’s guitar-driven brand of pop-rock worship, a sound similar to that of Chris Tomlin, Newsboys, Charlie Hall, and David Crowder but with one notable exception: Brewster can bang out a terrific guitar solo at any given moment. Other popular worship groups write equally good music as Brewster, but just don’t have the advantage of having a really great guitarist in the band.
Brewster comes up with some nifty licks that keep his songs fresh and interesting, giving them a quality and vitality that many other worship bands just don't have; Brewster’s rock edge give his songs a racing pulse, and his arrangements of worship classics are hot (usually), much hotter than most other tepid remakes by other bands (FYI – there’s an epidemic of poor worship song covers in Christian music; consider yourself warned)
Brewster re-ignites Geoff Bullock's classic The Power of Your Love with some moody, minor arpeggios over a faster tempo and a vocal duet with Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay. Brewster’s version of Shout to the Lord (the breakout, worldwide megahit by Bullock's protege Darlene Zscech) is one of the best covers of the song ever recorded; Brewster's all too short solo at the end of the song shows he can play with the best of them. Brewster’s smoking remake of Joel Houston's Everyday is insanely catchy – Brewster transforms the awkward and somewhat plodding Hillsongs production into a fantastically irresistible “get up and dance” rock masterpiece – and his live cover of Israel Houghton’s You Are Good might just be better than the legendary original. And that is saying a lot...
Not to say that there aren't some cool spots in these and other tracks - Shout to the Lord suffers (as usual in covers of this song) from too much vocal chorus, and (in this case) not enough fabulous guitar; the scripture reading by what sounds to be a six year old at the end of an otherwise fabulous rendition of Everlasting God is saccharine and glaringly out-of-place with the rest of the song. His instrumental version of the worship standard Here I am to Worship sounds as if it would have been more at home on the Top Gun soundtrack, but technically, it's still really good. Thankfully, slip-ups like these are few and far between in Let the Praises Ring - The Best of Lincoln Brewster.
Brewster's original songs are the real gems in this collection; I can't find a single one to complain about. Take Me Higher and What Kind of Man are early works that show Lincoln's been the real deal since his debut, while the radio mixes of recent efforts like Majestic, All to You and Love the Lord prove that he’s only getting better over time.
So, while three studio and one live album might not earn some artists a "Best of" collection, Lincoln Brewster's skills as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter show that he's earned the right to a retrospective at this stage of his career. And at the rate he's going - I wouldn’t be surprised to be recommending "Best of – II" after four more albums from Lincoln Brewster in the near future.
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Lincoln Brewster – Let the Praises Ring – The Best of Lincoln Brewster
Originally Released November 7, 2006 by Integrity Music
Track Listing
Everlasting God / All to You (Radio Mix) / Love the Lord (Radio Mix) / Let the Praises Ring / Everybody Praise the Lord / Lord I Lift Your Name on High / All I Really Want / All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises / Majestic (Radio Mix) / The Power of Your Love / Shout to the Lord / He’s All I Need / Everyday (Radio Mix) / Take Me Higher (Ps. 73:25) / What Kind of Man / You Are Good / Here I Am to Worship (Instrumental)
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