Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Attempting to mine the same lucrative seam of acoustic pop as Jars Of Clay, The Forty Days have the acoustic guitars, the harmonies and a good set of songs but on this independent release they haven't quite got the bite that sets Jars apart from the crowd. Another band with a song on 'Mindy's Revenge', theirs is "Why" which has a vocal effect which sounds like the singer recorded the vocal underwater! Distinctive? Yes! Some production trickery goes a way to keeping this interesting. The songs are clearly God centred and one of the standouts is 'Tetelestai", focussing on the work of Christ on the cross from Peter's perspective. The delicate acoustic opening and some atmospheric strings give way to a blistering bit of guitar to make this an outstanding song. Sadly that quality doesn't pan out across the album. "Where's Baal" sounds like a song Guardian threw away. "Show Me The Way" is a little better with its breezy acoustic pop sounds and hooky chorus and plenty of harmonies. The Forty Days have put together a good but not earth-shattering debut release promising more than it delivers.

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