Reviewed by Simon Redfern

When a fair proportion of your musical diet is made up of contemporary Christian material, it becomes increasingly difficult to find something that's not rather bland and tastes much like everything else you consume. This album however has bags of original flavour with Joel writing the huge majority of songs on the album himself and the musical dressing is top quality, being full of zest and energy throughout. This is US-based Joel's first commercial label release, although he has been producing his own independent releases for some years. His vocal style reminds me of a refined version of Richard Marx (remember him from the '80s?). There's obvious passion in Joel's writing and although some tracks such as "Be A Father To Her" or "The Father I Never Had" are based on some very deep personal experiences, they don't become too heavy to listen to. Combined with the rocky "Wonder Of Your Love" and "Louder Than The Angels" it makes a great, highly playable album which is unlikely to gather dust in your CD rack.

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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