Stars: 3.5/5

Following the release of Kanye West’s “Jesus is King,” and the continued success of the nationwide Sunday Service event, the Sunday Service Choir has finally released their solo debut, “Jesus is Born.”

Essentially an extension of the Kanye gospel-rap fusion project, the Sunday Service delivers their distinctive and powerfully layered voices atop simplistic, yet beautiful production heavily reliant on piano, acoustic instruments, and light drums. 

The lack of presence from Kanye definitely lends to a more focused central message, and the voices of the choir are good enough to carry the album. Unfortunately, the album’s daunting length takes away from some truly great tracks, resulting in an album that, despite being a more focused and true-Gospel project, overstays its welcome. 

The album’s tracklist consists of a variety of classic Gospel songs, original tracks, and even a few remixes of modern Kanye classics. Each song contains incredibly diverse and powerful vocal work from the choir, with some of the most heavenly harmonies I’ve heard in modern music. 

Goosebumps ran up and down my arms during several moments, with the remixes of Kanye tracks like “Ultralight Beam” and “Father Stretch” being particularly noteworthy as highlights on the album. 

The central message of the album is also much more focused without Kanye’s intervention. My biggest gripe with “Jesus is King” was that Kanye’s ego showed its head on several tracks, distracting from the album’s true Gospel intentions.

That is not the case here, however.

The album is almost 90 minutes of pure, unedited praise, as the Choir praises all aspects of the God they so unwaveringly love. It is hard to not be infected by the beautiful and undistracted praise. “Jesus is Born” truly is the Gospel album that “Jesus is King” tried so desperately to be. 

Unfortunately, that 90 minute track list is perhaps the biggest hindrance the album faces. Every song lasts just a little too long, coming across as grating and repetitive in multiple cases, and when that happens on nearly every track, the album itself comes across as a little grating and repetitive. 

Each song is enjoyable in and of itself, but the messages and musical styles become drastically overplayed and overlong. No matter how good the music is, when you hear the same praises and style of vocal work for essentially 90 minutes, it becomes a little excessive. 

Despite the overwhelming longevity of the album, “Jesus is Born” truly allows the Sunday Service Choir to shine outside of Kanye’s shadow, and bring the praises of God to the mainstream in an exciting and beautiful way.