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On City of Pain, the track "My Peoples" is like a sonic resumé of prominent Christian hip-hop/R&B recording artists, featuring the voices of Coffee of GRITS, KJ-52, Lisa McClendon, Verbs, Phanatik of The Cross Movement, DJ Maj, and several more. Those names offer some insight to Mark J's music, which includes qualities of GRITS, The Cross Movement, L.A. Symphony, and Tonéx. Mark Johnson was born in Queens, New York, where he grew up on a steady diet of hip-hop. He later moved to Atlanta and became born again at a youth service, seeking ways to bring hip-hop and faith together. He went on to record three independent albums (prior to City of Pain), and collaborated with Soul Heir (Mars ILL), Elle R.O.C., and Red Letta (I Do). I was immediately hooked by City of Pain's rhythmic opener, "Beat of My Soul"—live percussion in hip-hop, imagine that. The rest features programmed beats, but a good mix of melodic hooks, both R&B and rock, in conjunction with the hip-hop vibe. The rhymes are thoughtful and clever, overtly spiritual and evangelical without sounding clichéd. Mark J has a lot to say with this eclectic and lengthy disc (25 tracks and just short of 80 minutes!), but he also cuts to the chase in every song with his passionate point of view.

All the Way
Pop/rock
www.davidpaulstrom.com

David Paul Strom's story is pretty typical—creating Christian pop/rock while performing in churches and coffeehouses throughout the southwestern U.S. since 2001. The quality of his music, however, is anything but typical. His new eight-song disc boasts an impressive pop/rock sound recalling The Wallflowers and John Mayer, the vocal similarities almost uncanny. Most of Strom's songs are Psalm-like, offering praise to the Lord and pleading for his love. The stream-of-consciousness rocker "Your Spirit" has an especially cool progressive pop sound akin to some of the great underground Christian acts from the early '90s, such as The Call and The Choir, without sounding dated. "Praise You Lord," meanwhile, sounds like classic upbeat Rich Mullins with its melody, worshipful lyrics, and simple pop/rock instrumentation. The songs would be all the more impressive if they weren't occasionally bogged down in praise clichés ("There is none like you," "Jesus, Lord I live for you"), but Strom's musical talents and passion for ministry shine through on this excellent disc.

Radiate
Contemporary worship
www.c3worship.com

This "independent artist" is really meant to call attention to an "independent label." C3Worship is based out of Christian City Church (C3) Atlanta, a rapidly growing church born out of C3 Sydney. The Australian tie remains strong, particularly with worship director Steve Deal, who originally hails from Sydney. Deal writes all the songs and performs on every track, which helps explain why Radiate closely resembles a certain best-selling worship series from Australia. While C3Worship hasn't offered anything particularly revolutionary, the quality is almost on par with albums from Hillsong Australia or Vineyard Music Group. C3Worship also offers projects from satellite congregations in New York and Dallas, as well as The C3USA Project, which samples from all three churches. What draws me to these albums—Radiate and C3 Manhattan's Peace (worship team pictured above) in particular—is that they are truly focused on glorifying God, like Hillsong and Vineyard. There are no familiar names or overused songs from scores of other worship albums to be found. Just original expressions of worship performed by talented praise teams, people that may be glorifying God in your own community.

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