Toby Mac – Tonight

Toby Mac is something of an institution in the Christian music scene. Once of DC Talk, he’s gone on to forge a successful solo career. And, like all of his other solo albums, Tonight comes across like a random journey through modern pop radio frequencies. The title track is pop punk ala Good Charlotte. “Funky Jesus Music” sounds like the Black Eyed Peas. There is even a straight reggae song, “Break Open the Sky.”

The only real sense of coherence is found in the familiarity of Toby Mac’s voice, and the fairly energetic feel of the music. Actually, that’s not quite true: another commonality is the auto-tuned vocals and recycled ideas. “City On Our Knees” is pretty much a direct rewrite of “Apologise” by One Republic, complete with blandly encouraging lyrics. Not all music needs to aspire to be art, and this album certainly doesn’t. It’s fun, though unoriginal. 3 out of 5