Ricardo Sanchez is the Worship Pastor at the First Assembly Dream Centre in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is now also a solo recording artist on the way maker label. His debut release is entitled Unmerited and is a collection of mainly self-written material, vertical in its contemporary expression of praise and worship.
Ricardo’s album has a healthy mix of latin stylings with more traditional guitar based contemporary music and it is this fusion of styles that makes this album unique from the many new albums coming out every week. The album is positive and upbeat throughout, its nice to hear an album and get the feeling that the artist is really enjoying what they are doing, it shows through on the record, and makes it much more positive to listen too. The lyrics are mainly in English, although he does go into Spanish occasionally, such as in the chorus of the catchy ‘Te Amo’, at the end of the track he breaks out the Latin beats, with the pulsing rhythm in the background, and really shows the diversity of his musical background. The funkiest cuts on the album are probably ‘Celebrate’ and ‘Come Down’ once again its Latin influenced, but yet remains decidedly mainstream, and I’m sure Ricardo will find himself with many fans. The softer, ballad style songs on the album also work really well, ‘Lord I Worship You’ has a gentle melody, that drifts really well into a chorus that has the simple lyrics that really sum up the artists outlook on this album ‘Lord I Worship You, This is what I’m created to do” The album closes with an a cappella version of the classic ‘It is well with my soul’ and I know I am normally critical of the trend of sticking hymns on the end of new worship albums, but I think this one fits really well.
So, summing up, this is a strong album from someone who is clearly an accomplished singer and writer. He has a good voice, and a style with just the right mix of Latin and guitar pop that should prove very popular. This is an upbeat release that flows well together and is very well produced, the quality is there throughout, and it makes for a very good listen.
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