Blind Boys of Alabama

By Dan MacIntosh • Jan 5th, 2010 • Category: Album Reviews

Duet albums, such as this one, are oftentimes ‘buyer beware’ moments for wary consumers. Many times, they’re created merely as shots in the arm to aging artists with declining CD sales. However, this release, which combines The Blind Boys Of Alabama with a wide stylistic variety of singers, is mainly comprised of previously released songs. [...]


Tim Hughes

By Dan MacIntosh • Dec 4th, 2009 • Category: Album Reviews

Tim Hughes’ Happy Day concert CD/DVD is like a Christian pep rally, as many of its songs are like battle cries for the faithful. I never fully understood the benefit of high school pep rallies. Were they meant to get our voices warmed up so we could cheer better and louder for the home team? [...]


Various Artists

By Dan MacIntosh • Dec 2nd, 2009 • Category: Album Reviews

Rating a Wow Hits collection is equivalent to giving a state of radio play list address, as most all of these songs are familiar to anyone who listens to Christian radio currently. And after listening to these 30 songs back to back, it’s hard not to be satisfied with what’s going on in radioland.
For instance, [...]


The Violet Burning

By Dan MacIntosh • Oct 13th, 2009 • Category: Album Reviews

Can you imagine Robert Smith in Christian music? Okay, all the makeup and puffy hair may need to go. But wouldn’t it be cool to have someone that sounds manic depressive, yet still loves God? Well, that may never happen; instead, this is one of those dreams where when you wake up you yawn and [...]


Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis

By Dan MacIntosh • Oct 10th, 2009 • Category: Album Reviews

Roots music always sounds a little funny when it comes from bands outside the U.S. This must be how celebrities feel whenever an impressionist imitates them to their face. ‘Is that really how I sound?’ ‘Do I always do that when I talk?’ With their self-titled CD, Londoners Kitty, Daisy, and Lewis – three teenage [...]


Matt Maher

By Dan MacIntosh • Sep 23rd, 2009 • Category: Album Reviews

Matt Maher is primarily known as the “Your Grace Is Enough” guy in Christian circles. However, the album from whence that hit song came, Empty & Beautiful, was – sadly – underwhelming. Listening to it reminded one of those pre-Beatles album days, back when albums were nothing more than smart guy, record company profit making [...]


Jeff Johnson

By Dan MacIntosh • Sep 18th, 2009 • Category: Album Reviews

Amazed is the perfect word for a worship release. Anyone not amazed by the God they’re worshiping, probably isn’t paying close enough attention. Jeff Johnson’s new five-track EP expresses awe for God with mostly one word titled songs.
Old-timers might be confused about exactly who Jeff Johnson is because there’s already another established Christian musician [...]


Derek Webb

By Dan MacIntosh • Sep 2nd, 2009 • Category: Album Reviews

Is it more shocking to hear Derek Webb use a potty word during “What Matters More”, or does Stockholm Syndrome’s keyboard-saturated electro-pop sonic startle you most of all? Clearly, Webb wants to shake the listener up, just as much as he’s intentionally stirred up his own operational procedure pot. Listening to Webb take on the [...]


The Devil Wears Prada

By Dan MacIntosh • Jun 24th, 2009 • Category: Album Reviews

Listening to The Devil Wears Prada makes me think of Tom Cruise. Not because Cruise is any kind of hard rock screamer, but because he’s a great actor – just as long as he’s in the exact right role. Allow me to explain. Cruise’s strongest point is intensity. If there’s an action movie with a [...]


Newsboys

By Dan MacIntosh • Jun 15th, 2009 • Category: Features

Duncan Phillips talks about the new line-up changes and shares his hopes for the band’s future.