Marco Duran
Let Go (2002)

review by: Mike Spinney
Date: 3/6/03

I like gospel music. No, I love gospel music. Good gospel music leaves you no choice but to move. It lifts your soul and fills you with an energy that cannot be denied. Gospel music is raw and emotional, and when it's done right, it will convert you.

I typically don't much like praise music. All the things that good gospel is, praise music usually isn't. Canned, un-spontaneous, stilted and insincere, it's hard for me to believe praise music helps anyone get into a worshipful mood. And if God listens only to the heart, I can't imagine he hears much from contemporary Christian praise.

But "Let Go," a new disc of praise music by Marco Duran on indie Closer Records (www.marco-duran.com), offers a refreshingly earnest set of a dozen original songs that I found enjoyably sincere. There's no foot stompin' or hand clappin' or hallelujah shoutin' or rafter raisin' numbers on this record – just twelve heartfelt offerings in song that quietly get the job done.

If you are the spiritual sort and like to take time to get closer to your Creator once in a while, you'll appreciate the soft, acoustics on Let Go as well as lyrics that seem to be genuine – written for God, not an audience.

I can appreciate that this kind of music isn't for everyone. But if there's a repentant bone in your body and you are in need of a little tuneful redemption, give Duran's album a try.