Three Exclamation Marks

So, overall I think this album is pretty good. It incorporates gospel singing styles and themes with some more modern production, that elevates the music from being just regular boring gospel, as well as making the songs more modern and accessible for younger audiences. I can't really speak to the messaging of the songs because I didn't pay that much attention to the lyrics but they weren't too overbearing in their Jesus praising and they didn't really distract me from the listening experience. Most of the songs were good and some even featured some more welcome references (I think) to JIK. However that is not to say that the album was perfect, some songs, I felt, were a bit overly long for seemingly not too much reason. Some had had a little spoken word from the choir leader, which isn't a terrible idea, but it wasn't incorporated super well on a couple tracks and lead to unnecessary track lengthening. There were a few songs I didn't really care for, like "Excellent" which didn't really feel up to the standards of the rest of the album or "Ultralight Beam" which is just an okay (5/10) cover of an originally great song from LOP. The album also featured some great songs, though, and the instrumentation on each track was great and I found myself, more often than not, jamming to the instrumentals a little more than the vocals when the big band came out or when a song featured some more prominent bass. Like "Revelation 19:1" which displays everything that I think is good about Jesus Is Born. It has a great vocal performance from the Sunday Service Choir, a great instrumental (and performance of that instrumental), a great production from Kanye West, an excellent mix of gospel and more hip-hop elements and some weird but cool references to Jesus Is King that make me go "Huh, that's cool." Jesus Is Born is a good album and a much better album than Jesus Is King ever was. 8/10