Top tracks: "Yours to Take," "Ride This Train," "Never Yours to Hold"
Ashida (say it uh-she-duh) delivers a strong debut that straddles the pop and worship genres while mostly dodging the common pitfalls of both. Watchman is an acoustic pop album that flows with a worshipful awareness in a multifaceted world. Prayerful lyrics intermingle throughout. Big choruses on "Songs of a Broken Man" and "I Want to Run" echo like corporate singalongs. "Arise" is a feel-good anthem, and "Yours to Take" stands out as a mature love song. Lyrical themes such as grace, hope and redemption are expressed with broad, sometimes generic, strokes. Those are easier to overlook thanks to the well-crafted mix of pop sensibility and banjo and cello organics.
“He Gets Us,” an effort to attract skeptics and cultural Christians, launches nationally this month. But Christians still have questions about how the church markets faith.