Various - World Spirituality Classics 2: The Time For Peace Is Now LP

Label: Luaka Bop

Gospel music that is not about God or Jesus, but instead how we deal with each other. Sourced from small label gospel singles from the 1970's from fairly obscure groups. The Time For Peace Is Now was compiled by renowned soul DJ Greg Belson, and the liners include special essays from New York Times Bestselling author Jonathan Lethem (whose introductory notes are below), gospel expert Robert F. Darden and Pastor Keith L. Whitney, the Pastor of Sanctuary Fellowship Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.

"These songs are resplendent with love and yet are not love songs, not in the sense of man-addressing-woman, or woman-addressing-man. The material here speaks of life and death, care and disrepair, exultation and release, sorrow and pain, and exhort the listener to hold on, seek peace, let light shine, know joy, recognize the love in one's fellows – nearly every ecstasy excluding the erotic variants is on offer here. All this music fits naturally into a context of people trying to speak to other people about the condition of being alive, and the fact that the emotions are universal and collective ones doesn't make them any less intimate, passionate or devastating." – Jonathan Lethem