This week's gospel CD reviewed

THE GOSPEL PROJECT

On the Outside /No Label

There are wedding bands and weddin’ bands, and The Gospel Project are most definitely members of the former (albeit much maligned) camp. Oddly, despite a respectable sprinkling of belly-deep vocals, all five vocalists are white and Irish – and without a hint of good southern baptist blood to shed between them. Predictability in the repertoire is their biggest sin. They lean too heavily on such standards as Amazing Grace and Just a Closer Walk With Thee, tossing in an irritatingly honky (and misplaced) introduction to the latter. But with a trio of original songs and truckloads of energy bursting from the mix, The Gospel Project seem like a collective merely whetting their whistles. The song Testament, by founding member Cathy McEvoy and Cian Mekitarian, and their reading of Eleanor McEvoy and Henry Priestman’s Something So Wonderful hint at more spirit and muscle to come. www.thegospel project.net

SIOBHAN LONG