Review

It's a timeless truth. From spreading mayonnaise to applying make-up to writing a great song; Less is more. In "The Beauty of Simplicity", the guys who comprise the group Telecast have produced a CD of great songs that take this principal to heart.

It takes a masterful artist to know when to hold back his brush or his pen, and Josh White, front man and founder of new BEC Records artist Telecast has learned the true art of restraint. The melodies are subtle, the music is exquisitely understated and this allows the jaw-dropping power of the lyrics to hit your ears, and your heart, like a runaway freight train.

"Give me words to praise you and love to love you, but it has to be you," sings White on the disc's first track. "You are the only way I'll go, you are the only truth I know, you are the Way, the Truth and the Life. You are the way for me. Jesus your love is a mystery," sings White, his vocals somewhere between a British alterna-pop star and David the shepherd boy singing of his love for God in the fields outside of Bethlehem.

Warm and swelling with emotion, White's voice is the perfect vessel for the album's songs of devotion; emotive, sincere, and endearing to the heart of God.

On "More Of You", White sings, "I have tasted of your love and still I'm thirsty for more of you and less of me/ Jesus come be a light in me/ Burn like the sun for the world to see/ Be glorified," in the most unpretentious, melodic voice you can imagine, allowing the weight of these words to settle like manna on your soul. You'll want to sing along. You'll want this song to be your own.

White has taken a roundabout journey on his way to recording these songs to God. He admits he had to come to the end of his rope before he could find his way home again.

A few years ago, White was a member of Man Ray, a Seattle rock band that was signed by Mercury Records. But this isn't something that White is proud of by any means, although he admits it was something God used to bring him back around. "Man Ray was definitely very, uhh, secular. I mean, our CD had an advisory sticker on it! It was a very dark time of my life when I wasn't really walking with the Lord," he confesses. After leaving this band, White was determined to follow what he believed to be God's direction. He moved to Spokane and began leading worship full-time at Calvary Chapel. He began writing a lot of worship songs, sometimes more than one each week. Soon, other players joined what would become known as Telecast. This included Nick Tibbets on drums, Adam Breeden on guitar, and Marquis Ashley on bass. From the first rehearsal, says White, "God made it very clear that this was supposed to be the band for my new music. Everyone felt it," he says.

Influenced musically by British alternative artists such as Placebo, Coldplay, and The Charlatans, Telecast created an album full of beauty and, yes, simplicity. For White, "Worship is not a song, but a daily decision to serve Christ in everything. Jesus Christ deserves more than just our belief and detached admiration, and I believe we can only find true joy by simply knowing and loving Him."

Telecast has put together an emotional, worshipful, simple set of songs that is both easy on the ears and inspiring to the soul. It is, put simply, beautiful.

Review by Keith Giles