Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

I met husband and wife team Susan and Ritchie Garcia from this band at a showcase in America and their music has appeared on The Experience sampler. But now hot on the heels of their debut album, Cross Connected have a new EP with new material and songs from the album re-recorded. All of this just shows how much Cross Connected have developed in the space of a few months. It's particularly apparent in Susan's singing which seems determined to lose nothing of the passionate power of her punk days whilst fronting an acouslic-driven pop rock outfit. So what do we have? "Shades Of Blue" has some strong guitar to give this a bit of an edgy feel and is the ideal opener. "Start A New Day" takes the band in a whole new direction with the introduction of atmospheric synths giving the song a swirling '80s feel. "Oh My God" is reworked from the album and has a stronger sense of urgency than on the previous recording whilst the reworking of "Slip & Fall" is again an improvement from the album version with more production polish bringing the best out of the song. I really like this band, particularly because they have a testimony of God working deeply in their lives. Songs born not from theory but reality are always going to connect.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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