Reviewed by Ian Bruce

I've listened to a lot of Christian albums in my time and by now I think I have a pretty good idea of how to separate the wheat of originality and talent from the chaff of production-line music saturated with Christianese cliches. | Taking that as read, if Maia Amada's debut album is anything to go by, she offers breakfast cereal of the highest quality and I am listening to someone who is going to go far in the world of Christian music. Her voice reminded me of an idealistic cross between those of Beverley Craven and Paula Abdul, with a dash of Taylor Dayne thrown in on "Soul Deep", a track which I consider to be the highlight of the whole album. The second best track has to be "There's A Place", an upbeat number that simply begs to be hummed along to. I've put the remaining seven songs in joint third place because, in all honesty, I loved them all. My car stereo protested for a while when I abducted it's copy of Amy Grant's latest album in favour of Maia's, but now threatens to go on a hunger strike if I even consider reversing my actions. Who am I to argue? Even traffic hour impatience! What more can I say? The arrangement and production of Maia's album can't be faulted and if you want an album brimming with upbeat soul music you'd better buy before it sells out.

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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