Consumer Guide Album

Mighty Clouds of Joy: The Very Best of the Mighty Clouds of Joy [ABC, 1978]
This two-disc set presents the pre-crossover Peacock-label gospel and the "appeal to Pop/R&B audiences" as a continuum, and while I'm still a fan of the Clouds' first Dave Crawford LP, guess which period sounds better. Is it the formal purity of the Peacock stuff, leaving the excitement to Joe Ligon's falsetto-piercing shouts, that makes their sermonizing seem so unpresumptuous? Or does the music just go with the message, as in the overbearing orchestrations of the more recent "God Is Not Dead" and "Look on the Bright Side"? One thing I know--gospel songs are written by mortals, too, and all the faith in the world isn't going to make a good one out of a bad one. An acceptable one, maybe. B+