John De Jong - Strange War

Saturday 1st September 1990
John De Jong - Strange War

STYLE: Pop
RATING 6 6 6 6 6 6
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 1557-CAS1548
LABEL: Independent
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by Tony Cummings

The 'return to acoustic' movement within British Christian music circles is a heartening one and John turns in a highly listenable custom cassette which though lacking the ascerbic literacy of a Billy Penn's Brother or a Cole Moreton does have a gentle, lilting poignancy and devotional dimension all of its own. Arrangements are on the whole excellent and skilfully cover the tiny budget. Particularly outstanding is Rebecca Whittam's cello on "Song Of The Tree". John has a pleasant tunefully light voice which can handle a ballad of introspective poignancy like the haunting title track but comes unstuck on the neo-reggae "Keep Walking" (when will whiteboys learn to stay away from the genre?!). The final track, a worshipful "Comfort Ye", features a vocal by Alison Hall and doesn't quite fit the rest of the introspective singer/songwriter mood of the album. But overall an album that succeeds by playing to its strengths.

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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