This Is Why –  Samie Bisaso (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

It is the most natural thing in the world to use music as a way of celebrating your faith, expressing your adoration and adherence and spreading the word which you hold dear. It is safe to say that it is one of the main the reasons music even survived and evolved through the ages, most early music being devotional in nature and sacred in purpose. Fast forward to the modern age and music is now made for a whole range of reasons and across a multitude of genres, but artists like Samie Bisaso not only remain loyal to their cause but are clever enough to understand that to be effective his music needs to be on equal terms with that around him. And so This Is Why is a collection of soulful and infectious pop, addictive R&B grooves, Afrobeat rhythms and much more besides. And as a method of delivering a message it is the perfect way of reaching a wide audience and of course once you reach that audience they are free to revel in the music, explore the lyrics or hopefully do both.

This is Why is the long awaited follow up to the acclaimed Million Pieces which won album of the year in Christian and Gospel genres and which includes two singles which have already been both critically and commercially well received. Samie himself explains the reason behind his passion, “In a society of bold secular…which is turning away from the things of God, I wish to bring to the music arena material that is not only clean, uplifting and catchy, but songs that make people think about the realities of life, love and most importantly, Jesus Christ. Each song is written to inspire. I hope you enjoy my music and take the lyrics to heart. They are written from the core of my soul. And I pray that through my songwriting I bring some extra happiness and thought to your days.”

It is an album which covers a lot of ground from The Goodness, an exotic collection of contagious African beats to the slick balladic pop of Your Love and from the cinematic and widescreen soundscapes of Be Still to the slick, jazz infused title track. This may be an album whose sole intent (make that soul intent) is to spread the message of the Gospels but it is anything but a gospel music album, not in the traditional sense anyway. Maybe this is the sound of nu-gospel, if that is even a thing, and if it isn’t maybe it should be, maybe we all need to move with the times, move away from the traditional image, and indeed sound, of the devotional music of the past and embrace more contemporary sounds. Samie Bisaso has and the result is something which neatly connects two worlds, those already in the know and those who may wish to explore the albums message more thoroughly. It may be a collection of musical styles, a blend of genres but lyrically there is no ambiguity.

Gospel music is often accused of following its traditions too closely, of moving too slowly, of sticking to the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” ethic but Samie Bisaso shows us that the potency of such music and therefore the effectiveness of the message can be increased ten fold when you don’t worry about where the musical barriers lie, when you wander more contemporary or wide-ranging musical pathways.

This Is Why certainly comes from the heart and may be familiar in its message but it is Samie’s ability to embrace such a wide sound palette, to be forward looking and, sonically of the moment that makes this such an effective album. So much so that even if the message isn’t necessarily one that resonates with your own life, musically it is still an interesting, intriguing even, range of songs and can be embraced just for its musicality and deft songwriting as much as it can for its higher purpose.

The official music video for the albums title track, This Is Why will be available on general release on  17th November.

You can get your copy  n-iTunes-https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/this-is-why/1297105284?i=1297105289,