[Album Review] Tonight by Tobymac - Christian

[Locke]

Tonight - Tobymac - Contemporary Christian

 

Released: February 9, 2010

 

Cover Art:

Track Listing: (Ratings in green)

1) Tonight (featuring John Cooper of Skillet) - 4:20 10

2) Get Back Up - 3:14 10

3) Funky Jesus Music (featuring Beckah Shae & Siti Monroe) - 3:20 6

4) City on Our Knees - 4:27 9

5) Showstopper - 2:51 7.5

6) Changed Forever (featuring Nirva Ready) - 3:36 6.5

7) Hold On - 4:00 9

8 ) LoudNClear (TruDog '10) - 1:35 7.5

9) Hey Devil - 3:15 7.5

10) Wonderin' (featuring Matthew Thiessen of Relient K) - 3:40 10

11) Captured - 3:38 8.5

12) Start Somewhere - 3:36 8.5

13) Break Open the Sky (featuring Israel Houghton) - 6:14 8.5

 

*Note:  There are also a couple of bonus remixes at the end of the CD I didn't include in the tracklist ratings.

 

Overall, this is simply a great album.  I fear my ratings don't fully do it justice as I tend to be a bit on the conservative side with such things.  However, I do like practically every song here and have some personal favorites I love.

 

This is one of those albums that the first time you hear it, you like it and think the songs are good for the most part plus a couple songs that really stick out to you as being Good (with a capital g) right away.  I find that one tends to like music the more one listens to it, and this is no exception.  What starts out as good gets even better, and what starts out as Good becomes Amazing and just a little addicting.  Eventually you just want to keep on listening to the whole thing over and over again. :D

 

Almost every song has something good to it that makes it enjoyable.  Whether it be appealing tunes, good meaningful lyrics, or a combination of the two, each song is attractive in its own way.  There's a little less of the rap feel that was more prevalent in some of Tobymac's older album, although it still existed in a lot of the songs.  It's really a large variety of music from song to song, making each one distinguished from the others. 

 

 

 

Overall, I give this album a 9.5 give or take a half point.

 

To sum up, one word: Awesome

 

:D

[Canis Rufus]

Who would you compare this artist to?

[Locke]

Well, I believe he used to be apart of DC Talk.....but I can't really think of any other artists that do what he does.  Of course, that might just be due to my limited knowledge of artists.  I have about my 10 favorite that I listen to and that's about it. :D

 

And by the way, that's what I get for doing my review without listening to the CD; every song sounds so much better on the CD than in my head. :D

[Canis Rufus]

OK, :D lets try it this way then.    Would you consider this house, hip hop or other?    ;D

[Locke]

Hip hop.  It was actually a little tough to choose the genre, because there's a couple common ones for Toby Mac such as hip hop, pop, and rap.  But I just preferred to use Contemporary Christian over all those. 

[Canis Rufus]

Ok I'm not very familiar with the Contemporary Christian music set; it seems that it does incorporate a lot of different music sets, which to me is sad in way that it has to identify separately from the rest of the music industry.  If its rock its rock regardless of what your Rocking out about.     

 

 

[Locke]

Yeah, it involves quite a large variety of music types.  But, being Christian and having a large preference for Christian lyrics, I think I disagree with you there.  To me, the lyrics are every bit as important as the music.

[Krakalakachkn]

TobyMac is a rapper, albiet a Christian rapper.  He's pretty talented and he rhymes about meaningful things, not drugs and getting laid.  He's not as technical as Biggie, Weezy, Jay-Z, or some other affluent rappers, but he does what he does well.  He's not just rap; he usually has a melodic chorus that he sings, but he usually raps the other parts.

 

Here's one of my favourite songs by him, if you're interested in checking him out.  It doesn't feature a lot of rap though.

 

This song is one of his more technical and faster rap songs.  It's pretty good too.

 

[F Horn of Valere]

Wholeheartedly agree with the 10 rating on track 1.

 

He used to be a Christian Rap artist (back before rap turned into crap :D, so in the 90s), but he has recently turned more hip hop with elements of Rock and Pop, which is why he is so difficult to define. Of the group dc Talk, he was probably the most into the Rap element, but IMO, he also was the best of the trio when doing something melodic.

[Jeannaisais]

Having listened to all three artists from DC Talk separately, I have to agree, TobyMac is the best in the trio. Michael Tait does have a good voice, but TobyMac's lyric writing puts him on a whole new level than the other two. Did you know TobyMac actually wrote a majority of the songs for DC Talk? (At least, that's what I've heard/been told) I do know that Jesus Freak was all his writing!

 

As for this album...pure awesomeness! Totally agree there! And I agree with most of your ratings, but I'd give the album an overall 10 personally....but I am a bit obsessed with TobyMac because he is my all time favorite music artist....

 

 

[Locke]

Just last night, I watched a biography on his life.  And yeah, he pretty much started the whole group, wrote the music, came up with the idea for rapping verses and melodic choruses.  Apparently, Jesus Freak was what he wrote after DC Talk was told they had to water down the lyrics to go mainstream. 

 

I think if I did it again, I'd give a couple songs a bit higher ratings, because when I said the album grows on you, well it's grown on me even more since then. :D

[Jeannaisais]

I knew that about the Jesus Freak song. They were asked to go mainstream and they're response to watering down their lyrics was Jesus Freak. Talk about a shout out, huh? Awesome song though! TobyMac performed it at the concert of his I went to in 08.

[Locke]

Indeed. I love it! :D

 

That's cool.  I've never been to one of his concerts, sadly.  I don't think he's at Lifest this year.

[Jeannaisais]

Check his website, that's the easiest way to see where he'll be. I know he's going to be in Kansas City on May 15 at World's of Fun....but I don't know if you're close to that at all.

[Locke]

I'm up in Wisconsin.  Practically the only concerts we go to are at Lifest, which I'm excited for this year, because Downhere will be there.  Newsboys will also be there, but I'm not sure how they'll be with Michael Tait as lead singer....

[Jeannaisais]

I'm not sure about that either...he's a great singer by all means by I'm not sure how that'll turn out. And Wisconsin huh? That does make it hard to get to Kansas City and World's of Fun...I really wanna go that day but I'll probably be in Knoxville, TN watching my boyfriend's younger brother graduate.

[Locke]

Yeah, he's not a bad singer, but he's also not Peter Furler.  And their styles aren't really that similar either. (Although on a side note, I saw him on stage with Newsboys on the Thrive DVD we have.)

[Jeannaisais]

Points

Locke - 3x2=6

Jea - 2

Horn - 2

Krak - 2

Canis Rufus - 2

[Jak 0' the Shadows]

RR Task

 

He has a good voice and I appreciate that as as a Christian artist he doesn't say God or Jesus or Lord every other word. And some of his songs he doesn't just sing about concepts which are too foreign to non-Christians, he also sings (and raps) about things which are more universal, things that are relatable to everyone. Also, unlike most Christian artists, his songs don't all sound the same. I think that overall, Tobymac learns from the mistakes of previous Christian artists but just saying that would be an insult to him. His music is really pretty great. I am not as much of a fan of his rap songs but I am not big on rap anyway so that says more about my preferences that it does about his music. The 10 on the first track, the 9 on City on Our Knees and the 10 on Wonderin' were all well merited.  I will definitely keep listening to this album on youtube even if I don't buy it. 

Edited March 15, 2014 by Jak 0' the Shadows

[BridMorgan]

Jak 0' the Shadows - 1