Brooke Fraser is a name that might be new to most of you – it certainly was to me. Honestly, I didn’t know quite what to expect as I observed the somewhat sultry-looking singer pictured on the cover art of this Wood & Bone release. “Hmm. Probably some shallow, over-produced, commercial, big-studio clone,” I thought. [...]

At Bellerose Assembly of God Church – NYC, July 20, 2008

If you meet Amy Courts walking down the street, don’t ask her how she’s doing unless you don’t mind getting a bit depressed: her own press sheet says that her album, These Cold and Rusted Lungs, “illustrates the realities of weariness within the inner person.” No, this is not a ‘party’ album …which is not [...]

You can take the girl to Nashville, but you can’t take New York out of the girl. Sure, Francesca Battistelli is actually ‘from’ Florida, but she was born in New York and still sounds (to these ears) like a northeasterner, in the tradition of Kathy Troccoli or Margaret Becker. According to her MySpace bio, Francesca [...]

Good intentions plus talent doesn’t always equal good music. Case in point: Agents of Change, the new release by Aaron Greer Band (which I’ll refer to from this point on as AGB since the three-letter logo seems to be displayed prominently on their promotional material).
There’s something about AGB that makes me flash back to my [...]

When was the last time you saw the ‘Fathers of the Great and Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi, Mount Athos’ on the credits of a CD? Yeah – that’s what I thought. Liturgy doesn’t always come with a good hook (insert ‘fishers of men’ joke here), but the sounds of a liturgical chant are the first [...]

Sometimes it all boils down to personal taste. Pop music has a history full of voices that people tend to love or hate: or, if you like (at the risk of sounding somewhat condescending), there are those who just get it and those who don’t get it. Joe Cocker, Ray Charles, Dylan… acquired tastes, to [...]

There once was a time when I thought that Amy Grant exemplified all that was wrong in the Christian Music scene. It was all about faux-pop music that was safe enough, pretty enough, and accessible enough for everyone from your grandmother to your baby sister to listen to, convincing themselves that this CCM stuff was [...]

This is a very strange album. That’s probably not a great way to start off a review, but it’s the phrase that kept going through my mind each time I listened to Be Lifted Up, so there you have it. If you’re a fan of praise and worship music, though, it’s …. Well, maybe it [...]

Prince Caspian (as I’ll refer to both the film and the soundtrack, for the sake of brevity) is darker, more mysterious, more atmospheric and more action-packed than the first film, and all of that is reflected in the fine film score composed, once again, by Harry Gregson-Williams. There’s a true epic feel to the fully-orchestrated [...]