Reviewed by Paul Loader

The birth of this EP is really the stuff of rock & roll dreams. Forefront Records A&R director was having a meal with his wife in a restaurant in Nashville when the strains of a band playing in the club next door caught his attention. Having summarily been told off by his wife for not giving his full attention to her, he got the band's name from a flyer, tracked them down on Myspace and the result is the début EP for Abandon, and a great début it is to. Very much in the vein of The Killers and early U2 the CD contains five well produced, well written and well performed tracks all topped off with the vocals of front man Josh Engler. My favourite track is "Providence" (a song about the Apostle Peter's denial of Jesus), which had me smacking the steering wheel of my car with total abandon (no pun intended). "Be Alive In Me" kept the mood going and stamped the band's Christian colours well and truly onto the ears of the listener. The EP is a prelude that previews five of the songs of a forthcoming album which is scheduled for release in early 2009. You kind of get the feeling that this band are "blessed" and I predict that we will be hearing much more of them in the future.

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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