The opening measures of “Are You Ready,” track one of the Marion Gaines Singers’ “This Too Is Gospel,” are a manifesto for a group vying to be unchained. What begins as a bar of metered, tame gospel, breaks away ever so slightly as guitarist Rance Allen teases the listener with the tickle of his strings. By the time the accompanying quartet of singers joins in, the natural order has tipped back into balance, and the gospel is back as the listener should expect. But moments like these, in little pockets, peak out throughout the record, which bore a title that suggests the old guard of gospel music was headed in a radical direction.

The Marion Gaines Singers open “Leaning on Everlasting Arms” by leaning into a bluesy, hard rock-esque soundscape. Gaines’ hazy lead vocal tips its cap in the direction of Joe Cocker and Creedence Clearwater Revival, instead of that of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi or Mahalia Jackson. Save for “Open Your Heart,” the album’s sole straight-ahead gospel song, Gaines and his group relish in the realms of deep, heavy funk.