Desmond Pringle has been a contributor to the music scene for over a decade, showing up behind artists as diverse as T.D. Jakes and R. Kelly, but “Be Still” is all his. Co-produced with Richard Penya, this gospel project is packed full, coming in at over an hour and fifteen minutes and offering up duets with guest artists like Shirley Caesar and James Cleveland.
The warmth of “Be Still” is immediately apparent in opener “Let There Be Praise,” a sunny bouncy track that builds nicely to a funkified horn-rich praise groove. It is followed by a cover of Israel Houghton’s “You Are Good,” which, while certainly upbeat, doesn’t really add much past New Breed’s original sizzle. But the lush strings and slow-burning worship of “Everything to Me” wins you back, showcasing Pringle’s devotion in its expressive lyrics.
The album moves beautifully into some free-flow worship midway through, on the effervescent “Heaven” with its warm horns, and “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” featuring some soulful back-and-forth vocal play between Pringle and Caesar. His heart for the church is expressed lyrically throughout “Be Still,” clearly evident on “Holiness is Right” (“It’s not a suggestion, it’s a call”), and the mid-track exhortation on the passionate “Jehovah Reigns.” His tight choir never lets him down for a moment, wailing with a fervor equal to his own. Pringle and James Cleveland tear it up on the standout track “Jesus is the Best Thing,” deeply moving in its intensity and expression. It’s Sunday morning church all the way.
If you like the full on intensity of warm soulful gospel and petal-to-the-metal Jesus-love, you’ll enjoy Desmond Pringle’s “Be Still.”
