Newsboys, Adoration: The Worship Album

The first thing fans will notice about Adoration: The Worship Album is the absence of the Newsboys’ trademark metaphors. This worship album favors straight-talk over poetry to declare personal and corporate devotion to God.

Newsboys lead singer-songwriter Peter Furler believes worship is more than singing songs to God. It is a move of the Spirit that requires humility. “People who don’t know think it’s three chords and plain lyrics,” Furler says. “But those could be the three chords that change your life.”

The band’s career has been marked with a phenomenal ability to touch lives with its words. But until now, the Newsboys have never created an album explicitly for worship. Adoration includes the group’s super-smash hit, “It Is You,” whose resonance with fans and churchgoers alike signaled the time for a Newsboys worship project.

While not lyrically mind-bending, the creativity of Adoration is in praise for God, wrapped securely in 21st century style. Adoration is a collection of both original songs, such as the early-release “He Reigns” — already at the top of Christian music charts — and twists on enduring hymns. “Great is Your Faithfulness” delivers the message in the pop sound for which the Newsboys are known. “Praises (Take My Hands)” has a definite techno-beat that could hold its own in any dance club, and the treasured favorite “In Christ Alone” is transformed from solemn to joyous. Live versions of Newsboys originals “Lord (I Don’t Know)” and “It is You” emphasize the band’s conviction that Christians must and should worship God together.

Adoration is the Newsboys’ humble cry for God to comfort and change His people. Songs begin quietly and swell to crescendos of percussion and blended voices, each underscoring the band’s commitment to a living faith. The Newsboys’ steadfast conviction that music should change lives makes Adoration add up to a sing-able and personal journey of worship.