Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

Red Hurley would appear to be the next coming thing to crossover to the UK from the Irish music scene. I'm reliably informed that he has spent a total of 140 weeks on the Irish charts during his career; the title track of this album has had airplay on the Terry Wogan Show on BBC Radio 2; and he spends half of his time in the USA on concert tours. This album is predominantly what I have seen described as "quasi-spiritual" material - songs of the "Wind Beneath My Wings"/"Bridge Over Troubled Water" type, that can be viewed on two levels, either as mainstream pop songs or songs that have some sort of faith-based emphasis. Looking at the composers' credits in the sleevenotes, I spot Brendan Graham and Rolf Lovland, the guys who wrote the Westlife hit "You Raise Me Up", that crossed over into Christian music after being covered by Sheila Walsh and Selah. Also present are Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black ("Love Changes Everything"), Mike Batt, Ewan MacColl, Ennio Morricone, Phil Coulter and others well known in popular music. I can't see this appealing to discerning Christian music aficionados, due to the lack of any clear Christian message (apart from the title track, which is a composition by Integrity worship man Don Moen); in fact one of the tracks, "I Wanna Live With You", which Red co-wrote, appears to advocate co-habitation. On the other hand, the same sort of people who are fans of Red's fellow countryman Daniel O'Donnell will probably buy this by the truckload and few would argue that Red has a good voice.

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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