Newsboys go retro with new release

Spe­cial to The Den­ver Post
Today, Tues­day, May 5th, marks the news­boys’ final release with Peter Furler as the band’s lead singer, and the guys stepped back in time with this CD, “In the Hands of God.” The CD fea­tures clas­sic rock ’n’ roll news­boys — big gui­tar riffs, dri­ving drums and some quirky, pop lyrics thrown in for fun — all with a mes­sage.

Furler will remain as the cre­ative force behind the band with Michael Tait of dc talk fame tak­ing over the micro­phone. Accord­ing to band­mate Dun­can Phillips, Furler is more com­fort­able in the stu­dio than on stage, where­as Tait loves to play to the audi­ence. But more on that at a lat­er date.

If you are a long­time news­boys’ fan, this CD is a must. The first track, “The Way We Roll,” def­i­nite­ly gets things rockin’ and rollin’. It’s a trib­ute to the Aussie band’s first years on the road after sell­ing all their pos­ses­sions to tour the States. “Rewind the clock, we were rid­ing a wave of Oz rock,” gets the song rolling.

“This is Your Life,” is a more melod­ic tune about being good to your­self as Furler explained — a song about encour­age­ment and for­giv­ing your­self. The CD’s rock wor­ship songs are “Glo­ri­ous,” which was tak­en from the Psalms — “Though I stum­ble, though I fall, You remain glo­ri­ous, towards your light I come run­ning.” — and the title track, “In the Hands of God,” reveal reflec­tive and thought­ful lyrics and mem­o­rable cho­rus­es that are easy to belt out with the band.

The quirky, pop “My Friend Jesus,” is a tale of being put on hold by a big com­pa­ny, but try­ing to remem­ber, “What would Jesus do?” I love the lyrics — “I’ve been wait­ing for an hour, Now my phone’s los­ing pow­er, And I’m going to explode.” Fun­ny thing was two days after lis­ten­ing to the CD, I was deal­ing with the phone com­pa­ny and talked to at least 10 peo­ple to get a res­o­lu­tion and was ready to explode. But I recalled this song, and tried to “be the change you wan­na see,” and lo and behold I final­ly got some­one to fix my prob­lem.

The CD fin­ish­es with “RSL 1984,” as Furler tells about his days grow­ing up a pas­tor’s son in Aus­tralia with strings, keys and gui­tars a nice accom­pa­ni­ment to the rock base.

By the way, take a look at this ear­li­er sto­ry on the band.