Get Up!

Description

Get Up! is an album by the Norwegian gospel group Oslo Gospel Choir, released in Europe on RCA/BMG in 1994. Also released in the US on Reunion Records the following year featuring new cover artwork, distributed by both Word Distribution and BMG Distribution. The album was produced by choir conductor Tore W. Aas (tracks 7 and 8), Aas and Scott V. Smith (tracks 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, and 11), and Andrae Crouch and Scott V. Smith (tracks 2, 5, and 6).

For reasons obvious to anybody with eyes, people don’t associate Norway with black gospel. But with the release of ‘Get Up!’, the Oslo Choir’s fifth album and their U.S. debut, the days of such stereotyping may be numbered. For not only do these two dozen white folks sing black gospel, but they also sing it well.

Some may attribute their facility with the idiom to the involvement of Andrae Crouch. After all, with one of gospel’s living legends co-writing and co-producing one third of the album, how wrong can it go? But even the songs written and produced by Tore W. Aas and Scott V. Smith sound, for all their slickness, like church.

And although the playing of studio veterans like Abe Laboriel and Ricky Grundy doesn’t hurt, it’s the singing of the OGC itself that elevates ‘Get Up!’ True, they sound displaced on Dolly Parton’s «High And Mighty», and there are probably too many ballads. But Grethe Swensen’s Mavis Staples imitation on the title cut and «Jesus Is Lord» more than makes up for it. As does Kristine Patterson on «Your Word». As do all 24 Oslo Gospel Choir members on «Real Love», as catchy a Bible-thumping groove shaker as you’ll hear all year. [Arsenio Orteza, Syndicate Magazine, #46, 1995]

Since the advent of rock’n’roll, whites have stolen, sanitised and re-recorded black music and run off with the profits. But few white groups have managed to catch the heart of a musical form in the way that the Oslo Gospel Choir have got their Nordic souls around black gospel. Taking Andrae Crouch as their inspiration, ‘Get Up’ is wonderful stuff. Whether pumping away on the full choir numbers like «Real Love» or breathing peace into tired souls with the gentle «Heaven» this is tasty to the max. The Oslo’s devotion to Crouch’s old repertoire has paid off as he produces and arranges a number of songs on the album and Abraham Laboriel comes along for the ride with his magnificent bass. So you get Crouch’s trademark of classy lead vocals and oodles of tight punchy harmonies over a slab of funky rhythms. A number of different vocalists take the lead but Grethe Svensen stands out with her rousing rendition of Andrae’s «Jesus Is Lord» which equals the original version. Listen to this, close your eyes and tell me that these blonde Norwegians haven’t got the chops. And I’ll tell you need your ears washing out! [Mike Rimmer, Cross Rhythms, April 1995]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/get-up/319522230)

CD tracklist:

01. Real Love – 4:27
02. Sweet Jesus – 4:24
03. Heaven – 5:46
04. Get Up – 4:11
05. It’s Just A Matter Of Time – 4:36
06. You Don’t Know Like I Know – 3:56
07. High And Mighty – 4:28
08. He Will Never Stop Lovin’ Me – 5:12
09. Your Word – 4:41
10. He Won’t Pass You By – 4:44
11. Jesus Is Lord – 5:45

Note: Released on both cassette and CD.

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