CD Review: Together Again, by the Crabb Family

Last updated on: May 16, 2012 at 6:00 am by Esther O’Reilly

CD Review: Together Again, by the Crabb Family 2012-05-16T06:00:24-04:00 Esther O’Reilly

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The Crabb family made their mark in the 90s as a passionate young group of vocalists who did Southern Gospel a little differently from everyone else. After achieving massive popularity, the group disbanded in 2007. Since then, each member has pursued his own ministry. Jason has found great success as a solo artist, winning Dove Awards in major categories. Kelly married Mike Bowling, and they started their own family group with Terah. Adam has done solo work, and Aaron sings with Canton Junction and has a worship ministry with his wife Amanda. But last year, all five siblings decided to come together for a new project and a limited set of tour dates. Together Again was released in February of 2012.

The format for this review will be a little different than usual. I’ll take a leaf from Eaton & Murray’s “Must Buy or Not” series and present my thoughts in the form of systematic “Likes” and “Dislikes” instead of going track by track. Let me know what you think.
Likes
*The style of this project is more laid-back than typical Crabb fare. More country than soul. Die-hard Crabb fans may find some of it a bit tame, but I enjoy it.
*The production values are very high, resulting in a project that just plain sounds good. It was produced by Jason Crabb and his band—Michael Shade Rowsey, Lorie Sikes, and Blaine Johnson, all of whom played on the album.
*All five singers have good powerful voices, and while not all of them are my cup of tea stylistically, this album lets them work as a vocal team instead of just divvying up the features. This was a great idea, and it pays off everywhere. Again, props to Jason for arranging the vocals.
* “I Love You This Much” — By a margin, this ballad is the best song on the album. The title phrase takes on progressively more powerful significance as it moves from an ordinary father and his son in verse one, to Mary and her Son in verse two, to Jesus himself in verse three.
* “Say a Prayer” — This is pure pop ear candy in the vein of 90s groups like Avalon. Excellent melody and fresh chord progressions married with heartfelt lyrics make for a very solid song. Of course, I’ve always been a sucker for songs with a chorus in a different key from the verse.
Dislikes
*Virtually none of the songs made me jump out of my chair and say, “Wow.” Lyrically, many fall back on well-worn cliches.
* “If There Ever Was a Time” has a lot of good ideas, lyrically and musically, but it just didn’t keep my attention to the end. I kept wanting it to go somewhere, and it never really did. Although I do enjoy it more than some of the other songs, I’m being a little harder on it because it had the potential to be so much better. (I realize I’m in the minority here.)
* “You Can’t Do That Anymore” is a really nice song to listen to, but the take-home message is ambiguous. The verses are structured as a series of “remember whens” — when young kids could ride their bikes around town safely, when it wasn’t so imperative that you lock your door at night, and when a boy could carry his pocket-knife on an airplane with him. Judging by the chorus, it seems like it wants to be more than purely a lament for those “good ole days,” implying that we should try to live less fearfully or cautiously in the future. But it’s not made clear what that would look like, or how we could do so without compromising our safety (plus, it seems odd to lump legitimate safety precautions together with the ridiculous regulations that are imposed on us by our burgeoning police-state government). The chorus says it all started when “We started believing this world is a scary place,” but the world is a scary place. It’s called original sin. Then, to make it more confusing, the final verse protests the ban on prayer in schools. I agree it’s a shame that we “can’t do that anymore,” but now we’ve completely changed the subject! That’s a topic for a whole different song. So the whole thing isn’t very well thought-out.
*Maybe this is a naive dislike, but…I could hear Autotune in several places. I’m sorry, I know everyone does it, but it makes me feel at least a little better if I can’t tell!
Bottom line: I enjoy how this project sounds, but some stronger songwriting would have made it appeal to me even more. Overall though, it’s a quality product. Some Southern Gospel fans might be disappointed that a few of the songs are more generic country than southern gospel in terms of their message, but I don’t think this is an issue. In fact, as I mentioned before, I thought those songs were a nice change of pace for the Crabbs from a vocal and stylistic perspective. I think ultimately, this album offers something for everyone, diehard and casual fans of the group alike.
Recommended? Yes
Rating: 3.5 stars
Review copy provided.

3.5 star

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