Reviewed by Jennifer Brooker

I used to think it naive of evangelical friends to decide if a particular album was Christian by checking out how many times the name of Jesus came up. A few minutes into this disc I found myself doing just that. (The answer is eight in just under 40 minutes.) Annie Herring has a pretty voice and good tuning, there's no doubt of that and she's no slouch as a songwriter, but the overall sound of this album is synthetic. Literally synthetic when it comes to the instrumental backing! And with no fewer than 11 photographs of the "star" on the cover sleeve and insert, it does set me wondering what this album is about. Ms Herring's stated artistic aim is "to know and touch the invisible and bring it to tangible form." Those are admirable sentiments, and she goes on very sensibly to observe that "Because these songs are just glimpses, not every song will hit you where you live every time...". The trouble is that none of the songs hit me at all - anywhere! There's a knack to matching music and lyrics to capture varieties of mood and she hasn't quite mastered it. The slightly more funky items work best (none of them go far from the middle of the road), but some of the results are to my ears quite bizarre: I never thought I'd hear the words "Kyrie Eleison" ("Lord, have mercy") turned into a cheerful, swingy number. Only in America?

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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