Reviewed by Alan Smith

The general theme, or should one say 'concept', of this bright and clean breeze from Nashville seems to be "Watch what you're listening to". Well, you can't really say, "Listen out for what you're watching", can you? John Lawry has obviously seen and heard the danger signals being incessantly spewed out from T.V., radio, telephone...and is taking time out to tell a young and impressionable audience that you've got to sift everything to see how it stands up to Scripture. And they can bop away to the dance of their choice, so long as it isn't the square tango or foxtrot, and take in the message being spewed out here. Here we encounter a bit of a difficulty. The Lawry lyric is written in a sort of Ian Anderson/Steve Windwood imagery. It is therefore assumed that the listener will pick up the odd key word and get the general drift, digesting the deeper meanings in moments of later solitude and reflection. But then again, most erstwhile music probably operates on different levels to a greater or lesser extent. The Star Song habit of putting the lyrics on the inside of the sleeve comes in particularly handy here. All titles have the origin of inspiration, or at least checkability, by way of Bible references. Most songs have at least two Scripture references, so if the music doesn't challenge you, you've still got a Bole study to have a go at. The production style is very clever but contrived in the sense that most things are either programmed or performed by Mr Lawry. You've got to love plastic percussion working to nanosecond accuracy to really appreciate this kind of style. It will also help if there are some traces of heavy metal in your blood. A band called Security Alert tried to do a similar thing over here in 1983 but it just didn't catch on.

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.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.