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JFH Indie Review

JFH Indie Inspection Review

Ross King

Ross King
This Hope Will Guide Me

Street Date: August 13, 2013
Style: Pop
Buy It: Apple Music
Stream It: Amazon Music

 
inspection/ThisHopeWillGuideMe
READER RATING: 
/ 5.0 (0 votes)

Somewhere around the turn of the present millennium, Ross King was busy crafting songs like "Small Victories" ("We don't always like the taste of Living Water/ So we look around until we find a drink that we prefer") and "Clear the Stage" ("Tell your friends that this is where the party ends/ Until you're broken for your sins you can't be social/ Then seek the Lord and wait for what he has in store"). Both tracks were fairly representative of King's skill at crafting thought-provoking, often jarringly honest, snapshots of the less-than-admirable tendencies of those who made their home in the church pews each Sunday.

For better or worse, very little of that spit and vinegar is present on his project, This Hope Will Guide Me, which features a dozen polished pop cuts sure to delight those in the radio-loving crowd. Of course, as a singer/songwriter type, King has long been supplying artists in the Inspirational Top 40 with their material, and this, along with the fact that such innocuous soft worship-oriented fare has all but come to dominate the Christian music airwaves, has arguably had a hand in the tone of King's 2013 undertaking.

To his credit, King does manage to sink his teeth into the occasional irresistibly catchy melody line, as he does on numbers like "Sin Is Powerless." By and large, though, the album being given over to mostly run-of-the-mill pop/worship material that, pleasant though it is, fails to leave much of a lingering imprint. Those who found King's warts-and-all glimpses into the human condition a bit too brutally direct for their tastes will almost surely prefer this record. Listeners who appreciated the discerning, no-holds-barred aesthetic of early albums such as ... And All the Decorations, Too" on the other hand, will likely find his this project a pale shadow of those far more distinctive and engaging former works.

- Review date: 10/10/18, written by Bert Gangl of Jesusfreakhideout.com



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This Friday, November 14, 2025
ALBUMS
Emery White Line Fever (Remastered) - Disc One (independent)
JERICKO Ups and Downs - EP [Syntax]
Kings Kaleidoscope Asaph's Arrows II EP [BEC]
VIC LUCAS The Journey (Deluxe Version) [Syntax]
Ronnie Martin Evergreen Melodie [Velvet Blue]
NF FEAR - EP [Capitol]
Blessing Offor To All A Good Night [Capitol CMG]
Rave Jesus I MET GOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR [Provident]
The Young Escape Not Done Yet [BEC]

SINGLES
ADRIEL CRUZ & JAMIL Praying For My Enemies - Single [Syntax]
BILL B. My Lord - Single [Syntax]
Biscuits Drifting Off (Hayloft) - Single [Circle Back]
CUTRIGHT, ZIPPY, & QEW Pick it Up - Single [Syntax]
DRENAE Like U Do - Single [Syntax]
KNALADEUS, SELAH THE CORNER, & AYO SHAMIR Let it Be (ft. JOSEPH SD) - Single [Syntax]
LEXLY NIRVANA Perdoname - Single [Syntax]
Richard Lynch Why Me Lord - Single [MTS]
NEEDTOBREATHE Where You Call Home - Single [Omnivore]
Hunter Plake Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Single [BEC]

Next Sunday, November 16, 2025
ALBUMS
Bir Witness 26.13 (independent)

Next Thursday, November 20, 2025
SINGLES
The Rocky Valentines Happy Thanksgiving - Double Single [Velvet Blue]

Next Friday, November 21, 2025
ALBUMS
Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, Ellie Holcomb I'll Be Home for Christmas - EP [Magnolia]
Joseph Habedank The Great Adventure: A Tribute to Steven Curtis Chapman [Daywind]
Andrew Marcus Christmas - EP (independent)
Stryper The Greatest Gift Of All [Frontiers]

SINGLES
Cliff & Antoinette Murray Happy Thanksgiving - Single [DREAM]
Jake MacAdam, Mark & Sarah Tillman Christ Has Come - Single [Ocean House]
Life.Church Worship A Thousand Blessings - Single [Ocean House]
Good Weather Forecast Little Christmas - Single [DREAM]

VINYL
Stryper The Greatest Gift Of All Vinyl [Girder]


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