Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Hitting the stereo like a Christian Mike Flowers Pops, Jonethis has taken hold of some of CCM's favourite tunes and re-interpreted them with his tongue firmly placed within cheek. Jonethis was discovered in a hotel lounge performing these very tunes live and promptly snapped up by a couple of record company execs who spoiled the marketability of such a scam. I have to agree it is hysterical, the arrangements are cheesy in a pseudo Bacharach style and it's fun seeing something as wild as "Punk Rawk Show" given this treatment. You'll giggle to his version of Jars' "Flood" or Plumb's "Crazy" and the jazz swing version of Audio Adrenaline's "Never Gonna Be As Big As Jesus" where our lounge singer tries his best to be Tony Bennett! Best cuts are "Jesus Freak" (though not a patch on Sweet Jazz Popeye's disco version!), Steve Taylor's "Bannerman" and the re-invention of the Newsboys' "Take Me To Your Leader". There are two weaknesses here. Firstly, a lot of the songs aren't well known here so the joke doesn't always work. Secondly, even though I think this is very funny, I would only play it as a novelty to make friends laugh. You'll probably find that after two plays it's destined to be filed not under L for Lounge but S for Short humour span. But if you're an avid CCM buff with a seriously weird side you might want to search out an import.

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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