Economy by John Mark McMillan is his fifth studio recorded album of contemporary Christian music. His music could also be considered as an alternative Christian with the way it has the feel closer to a radio alternative rock song than it does to being a Christian set of songs. That is until you hear the lyrics, which are a giveaway as to what the songs mean as well as what style of music he does. Nothing new being done here, even with the slight way that the songs sound more in line of being played on the radio rather than in a church, but the lyrics and meaning keep with the normal Christian/worship song where it’s about praise to Jesus and God.

This album didn’t impress me at all when I listened to it and it’s not because it’s a CD of worship songs. What I didn’t like about the album is that the sound of the vocals have a quality to them that reminded me of being at a bar listening to karaoke. Though the loud volume wasn’t there like in the bars, nor was the cheering or laughing of the crowd, but what I was hearing from John Mark McMillan was vocals that had no real energy behind them, no enthusiasm, and no real change in range of sound. His voice has this sound as if he were trying to force himself to keep his voice from breaking which only made his voice sound the same throughout the whole song. Along with no real pitch change, it also sounds as if he is reading the lyrics as he is singing.

There’s no sound of connection between artist and lyrics, which for songs that are supposed to be inspirational that feeling of being one with the song, having an emotional connection to the songs, it’s not there. This had me bored with the songs pretty quickly; I didn’t get invested in any of the songs. Even the instruments being played were dull and lack luster. At no time did I hear any sort of energy being put into the songs. There’s no rhythm, no real beat, just songs that seem to have had a tempo written out for people that can play an instrument to play there, even though they don’t really care for or about the songs. Because nothing caught my attention in these songs, other than them sounding like karaoke, I was really bored with listening to it and didn’t really care for what I was hearing.