90&9 - Reviews

Echoing Angels or Echoing Eighties?

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:31:01 -0400

March 26, 2007

By Chris Anderson

Echoing Angels--You Alone

2006, Sony

Reversal of Fortune

Originally, this review was going to compare Echoing Angel’s debut, You Alone, to Sloppy Joes. Sloppy Joes are neither good nor bad, but mediocre to the highest degree. When you just need nourishment—Sloppy Joe. This album has a good sound and accomplishes the purpose of worship, but musically and theologically it fails to say anything fresh and invigorating . . . or maybe not.

The Book of Lost Things

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:13:29 -0400

by John Connolly. Atria, 2006. 339 pp.

Reviewed by Alison Andrews

March 19, 2007

The children in classic fairy tales often find themselves alone and in danger. Their survival depends on their ability to discern the true nature of the characters they encounter and also, of course, on their ability to cleverly defeat their enemies. In The Book of Lost Things, 12-year-old David finds himself in a situation similar to the children in the fairy tales he loves. His world is in turmoil: his mother has recently died after a long illness; his father has remarried and started a new family; and they have moved into the country to escape the German bombs. What’s more, the books in David’s attic room have started talking to him, and he is also experiencing strange attacks in which he dreams of wolves and kings. When David hears his mother’s voice calling him, he follows the call into the sunken garden and from there into the world of fairy tales.

Larry Carter Live at the Point Concert and DVD Filming

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:54:22 -0500

Featuring Larry Carter, Kelton French, Point of Grace Praise Team
March 12, 2007
Reviewed by Jamin Tuttle

Beautiful News--Matt Redman

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:17:55 -0500

February 19, 2007

2007, Sparrow Records

Reviewed by Chris Anderson

The Miracle of Life

Page-Turners With a View

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:31:22 -0500
February 12, 2007
Reviewed by Alison Andrews

So tell me, what makes you keep turning the pages?

If you’re like a lot of people, it’s the plot. The anonymous literary agent Miss Snark, whose venom-tinged, yet hilarious advice to writers has earned her quite a following, receives a lot of unpublished novels that begin with someone waking up in the morning. Or a dream. Or two characters talk, talk, talking about a situation. Can you spot what all of these openings have in common?

Bianca Ryan--Bianca Ryan

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:23:28 -0500
January 29, 2007
2006, BMG Music Entertainment
Reviewed by Ben Meydam

Merely one year ago, this 12 year-old prodigy walked onto the America’s Got Talent stage, worked her way through the ranks, and won. Now she is walking into our lives with her self-titled debut album.

Little House in the Suburbs: Revisiting Laura Ingalls Wilder

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:56:57 -0500

January 22, 2007
The Little House series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Reviewed by Alison Andrews

Growing up, I wasn’t content just to read the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I wanted to be Laura. I pretended my bed was a covered wagon and rode west, wearing a sunbonnet my mother had somehow found. Life on the frontier became real to me through those books.

The Second Chance

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:31:45 -0500

Directed by Steve Taylor, 2006
January 15, 2007
Reviewed by Josh Lewis

Can a movie change a person? This is a question asked in the behind-the-scenes commentary for The Second Chance. After viewing this DVD, my answer is, “I hope so!”

Inside Out

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:04:12 -0500
By Mark Tewksbury, John Wiley and Sons, 2006
Reviewed by David Agriesti
January 8, 2007

Mark Tewksbury is the swimmer who won the gold medal at the Olympics in 1992 at the Barcelona Games. He was raised in Calgary, Alberta by adoptive parents, although he doesn’t make much of the adoption.

DC Talk - Jesus Freak 10th Anniversary Special Edition

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 09:43:36 -0500

January 1, 2007
Forefront Records, 2006
Reviewed by Ben Meydam

Their influence has possibly done more for the Christian music genre than any other group in the last decade. It isn’t that they were the greatest group/band of the 90s, though that is debatable among many. It’s that DC Talk connected to youth all across America.

Todd Agnew & Friends: Not Another Christmas Cliché

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 15:54:19 -0500

Do You See What I See?
Integrity Music, 2006
By Chris Anderson
December 18, 2006

Cliché is the oft-chosen weapon for impotent writing and preaching. Imagine this reviewer’s chagrin when the mother of all illustration clichés—the facets of a diamond—came to mind when pondering the brilliance of Todd Agnew’s Christmas album, Do You See What I See.

The Great Santa Search

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:44:38 -0500
By Jeff Guin, Penguin Group, 2006
Reviewed by David Agriesti
December 11, 2006

The author of The Great Santa Search is given on the cover as follows: “As told to Jeff Guinn by Santa Claus himself.” Since this is an autobiographical work, the central figure of this book is the fellow known as Santa Claus in the United States, but also in other parts of the world as Father Christmas, Pere Noel, or Kris Kringle, and with a change of gender and language, as la Befana. He is known to live at the North Pole, although until 1913 most people don’t know that he lived in Cooperstown, New York (page 141).

Jonny Lang’s “Christian Blues” Are Not An Oxymoron

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 23:57:39 -0500
Reviewed by Kent d Curry
November 27, 2006
While the Blues are considered an original American art form (with perhaps four others), most Americans today would be hard-pressed to name a contemporary giant in the field. That’s why most people have never heard of Jonny Lang, which is a shame because they’re missing so much.

The Second Chance

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 12:39:35 -0500

Directed by Steve Taylor, 2006
Reviewed by Josh Lewis

Can a movie change a person? This is a question asked in the behind-the-scenes commentary for The Second Chance. After viewing this DVD, my answer is, “I hope so!”

Jeremy Camp – Beyond Measure

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 20:20:30 -0500

2006, BEC Recordings
By Benjamin Meydam
November 20, 2006

For an artist with so many significant previous projects, it is no wonder Jeremy Camp scores again in his latest venture, Beyond Measure.