Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

IN THE MAINSTREAM

There is often some suspicion about Christian bands in the mainstream. A kind of "Are they? Aren't they?" debate. For me P.O.D. really have proven it's possible to make music that impacts the culture without compromising faith but then I don't think a band like Creed have Christian credentials, only a lead singer who seems to be denying that he is a Christian. Lifehouse on the other hand are the real deal. Coming out of the worship team of a Californian Vineyard church, here's a band who have managed to craft a pop rock sound that aches with emotion and poetic lyrics that speak to the churched and unchurched alike. Fittingly the songs express both faith and searching questions and sometimes songs feel deliberately ambiguous as in the case of the band's single "Hanging On A Moment" which could be about a relationship with a girl or God. Nothing new there except that in working with a big label like Dreamworks, it feels like a valid approach. Wade's vocals pitch in somewhere between Creed's Scott Strapp and Peal Jam's Eddie Vedder and for me there's no more beautiful moment on the album than on the slower almost Psalm-like worshipful "Everything".

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