In a nutshell: Once you look past his ultra-Christian moniker, you'll discover Holy Boy is nothing more than play-it-safe urban gospel. Very little on Holy Boy's Universal-distributed debut pushes the boundaries of sanctified urban pop. The singer, born Herbert Woods, is a dead ringer for Usher but his tracks seldom display the rhythmic oomph of the R&B star. Instead, Out of Time is modest and middling. That this album was almost entirely written, arranged, and produced by Woods may explain the homemade feel of it all—not exactly the stuff of chart-burners. Still, it's an earnest, no-frills introductory offer from a new face in urban gospel.
