Review – The Red Letters Project

I received The Red Letters Project recently, a recorded version of the book of Matthew, set to music, from Tyndale House Publishers.

2000 years in the making, The Red Letters Project is a dynamic, one-of-a-kind Rock and Pop tour-de-force built on the real Rock, Jesus. Using the words of Christ as found in the Gospel of Matthew (New Living Translation), The Red Letters Project is an unique alternative to spoken-word audio Bibles and traditional rock albums, blending the timeless life-changing text with a musical medium resonant with a new generation. The Red Letters Project is an excellent gift for teens, young adults, lovers of God’s Word, and any fan of rock music, regardless of age.

This was not my cup of tea, at all. I listened to each and every song on all three discs, hoping that the vocalists would be different, the style would change, that a tune would be catchy or something.

Nothing. For me it got very old listening to the same two or three artists (all unknown to me) sing the verses. Probably because there was little change in the vocalization, but it might also be because the book of Matthew is not one of the poetry books of the Bible and for me it didn’t work to set it to music.

I’m not sure who will like this. Maybe people a little older than me who grew up listening to Christian groups like Petra or MxPx? I can’t say for certain. Being around today’s youth quite a bit I can say that I don’t think they’ll enjoy this. You have to be a big fan of a very particular type of music and not mind that the same 3 people are singing all 40 tracks on this compilation. For me it would have worked better if there had been a wide variety of some notable Christian artists who had taken part in this.

Great idea; poorly executed.

A complimentary copy was provided by Tyndale House Publishers for the purpose of reviewing.