Review – Timothy Brindle ‘The Great Awakening’

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Timothy Brindle deals a heavy hand. So much so, that The Great Awakening could aptly be subtitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Rapper” a la Jonathan Edwards and his famous sermon (sampled in hell ). Edwards spearheaded a movement in the early 1740s that was dubbed “The Great Awakening.” Timothy is reaching out in 2003 with an awakening of his own. Using hip-hop as the medium of choice, Timothy delivers his modern day sermon via direct, in your face, rap lyrics. The CD opens with a dope, albeit lengthy, intro track that builds up an undeniable anticipation for the heat to come. “Glorious” kicks in with a jazzy, interesting saxophone based beat. The strength of this album is definitely the creative and inventive musical canvas over which the word pictures are painted. The beats range from the jazz-infused “Glorious” and “My New Life” to some House of Representative era Cross Movement thumpers (“Saved By Grace”, “Bondservants”) to smoothed out r&b-driven tracks (“Love Music”, “Intermission”). Despite all the originality, The Great Awakening also includes a few “recognizable” moments. “Ram’s Horn”, for example, comes off like a Jay-Z track featuring j-silas, a Memphis Bleek sound-alike. Such is life. Timothy’s delivery is pretty tight, but it might just take a hot second to grab you. It’s fairly unconventional, which means it needs a bit of time to grow on you. There also remains the question of intent. Is Timothy trying to reach those out of the “flock” or is he simply beating the choir about the brow? With such direct and aggressive lyrics you have to wonder how long the audience will listen. Then again, it worked in the 1740s, perhaps there’s something to the technique. Overall, the album shows that Timothy is a cat that has a lot of potential. Release Date: June 6, 2003

Label: Lamp Mode Recordings

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Tracklisting
1. The Great Awakening
2. Glorious
3. My New Life
4. Saved By Grace feat. Shai Linne
5. The Word of God
6. Ram’s Horn feat. J Silas
7. It’s Obvious
8. Vanity Remix
9. Total Depravity
10. Hell
11. Love Music feat. Gina Campbell
12. Bondservants feat. Shai Linne
13. Psalm 51
14. Sanctification Introduction
15. Sanctification feat. Shai Linne
16. Faulty Doctrine feat. Shai Linne
17. A Letter to My Friends
18. Liberation

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