Praising With the Gospel Twins

Visiting my grandmother’s house in the south, there was this zinc structure erected a few streets behind her house which served as a church.

Every single day, from dusk till dawn, monotonous gospel music would flow from this building into the streets of Koës. Tambourines would ring, the keyboard would be playing those stereotypical gospel notes and the congregation’s voices would fill up the atmosphere in discord as an emotional pastor would scream out testimonies in that halfway melodious voice. Listening to The Gospel Twin’s ‘Jesus Is My King’ took me back to those days. I must admit it had me feeling sentimental at first, however then I came back to my senses. This gospel album is exactly just that – a gospel album, nothing more, nothing less. What you expect to get from a gospel album, ‘Jesus Is My King’ will give you. For those who like this type of music, it might be enjoyable, but why buy this one when it sounds just like all the others?

Don’t get me wrong. I like praising Jesus too. I find comfort in traditional hymns and church songs, however, now and then gospel can break the barriers of stereotypes and really give other genres a run for their money. This can be heard from South African gospel groups that bring together a variety of strong voices and powerful instrumentals to create perfect, enjoyable music. Other times solo artists also bring their big guns. The Gospel Twins tried to imitate the South African way of doing things and sadly fell short.

Gospel hits such as ‘Ngekalunge’, ‘Avulekile Amasango’ and ‘Soon and Very Soon’ have set the bar for modernday African gospel very high and other gospel artists should strive to meet that mark, or raise the bars themselves. It would be nice to experience gospel music in a new light and find originality in the artists as it is still just a genre in music and should be judged by the same standards.

The Gospel Twins produced a nine-track album of traditional gospel and the album is of adequate quality when it comes to the vocals and the instrumentals.

If you have your own church or love worshipping, you could buy the album and praise alongside The Gospel Twins on Sunday mornings.

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