Adventist Media Response and Conversation

Friday, January 05, 2007

Music Review: Decemberadio


As a new feature on this blog I will be reviewing some contemporary Christian music CD’s. In the main they will probably be CD’s that I rather like since if I don’t like the CD after listening to a few segments I will leave it alone. It is always difficult to know what the tastes of a musical reviewer happens to be. For instance, a fan of Rap or Hip Hop music will not likely care about any of my reviews and I would likely not even review that genre of music since I don’t like it. To help the reader understand my tastes in music which will always have an impact upon my reviews I will at the top of each review offer my top 5 Christian and Secular artists. I was going to try and roughly equate the Christian artists to the secular artists if there are similarities, for example the Beatles with PFR (Pray for Rain), naturally there are still going to be significant differences but when I got to the second one on my list I realized that this does not work. For instance Delirious? has its own sound some draw comparisons to U2 but that is really a poor comparison, the similarity is more in the guitars but the singing is entirely different. Another on my list would be Matt Redman, who is more similar to Delirious? then anything in the secular world. The list will be posted anyway and we will see if it is helpful or not.

Beatles -----------------------------------PFR

Supertramp------------------------------Delirious?

Cat Stevens------------------------------Benny Hester

Moody Blues----------------------- ----- Matt Redman

James Blunt------------------------------David Crowder

Decemberadio is a new group with a current song often heard on the CCM stations. According to their website the current song Drifter is # 3 on the R&R charts. The website plays some of their songs beginning with Drifter then it moves on to what they sound like over most of the CD. The 3 slower songs on the CD are the best songs. In my opinion the rest are throw a ways. Having first heard Drifter on the radio I was very hopeful for the prospects of this CD. But I was very disappointed.

One Reviewer compared the group to the arena rock of Kansas. Which is probably not that far off, occasional memorable songs and lots of filler. I won’t try to describe the music much more since they have placed their songs on the website it is easy for a person to give it a listen. The 3 songs I would recommend are Drifter, Alright my Friend and Least of These. The Least of these is probably their best though they tack on a hidden track which is not worth anything so though the song is 7 minutes long at least 3 of that is material no one will care to listen to. You can get the CD or downloads at Christianbooks.com

Recommendation 2.5 out of 5 stars.

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