Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Any group whose core audience is teenage girls yet whose songs begin with lines like "What is the meaning of life?/I've asked myself so many times" ("Reason To Love") and "Who's the girl with the Bible in her hand" ("Dead Serious") are a long, long way from the dating game obsessions of most teen pop. The group - Alisa Girard, Kristin Swinford and Chrissy Conway - subtly change their sound with their third album, 2003's 'Different Kind Of Free' and this follows in the same modern pop rock sound. In fact, the guitar work throughout this set is excellent coming as it does from veteran Nashville axeman Lynn Nichols (he's a bloke), who once played rock with Chagall Guevara. With four different producers, there is plenty of diversity here. The song "About You" has a little bit of Avril Lavigne while "Dead Serious" and "Let It Out" aren't dissimilar to Gwen Stefani. Topics take in such things as girls who cut themselves (the sombre "Scream") while as usual on a ZOEgirl album, the subject of sexual abstinence is highlighted on the songs "Good Girl" and "Not The One". All in all, a slickly produced album carefully targeted at today's young women.

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