Week 70's debut will have some familiarity to students of music. Lead singer/guitarist Don Larson has written for Crystal Lewis and Daryl Coley, and often shows up on Scott V. Smith-produced albums. Drummer Gregg Bissonette, and his bass playing brother, Matt, have played with everyone from David Lee Roth to Ty Tabor (Jughead) to any number of CCM artists.
The project comes off as an adult contemporary piece that should rock harder than it does. Larson's voice is an edgy baritone somewhere between Rick Elias and Steven Curtis Chapman, but the music plays it safe throughout. "New Taboo" has some of the best lyrical content, but the background is DC Talk lite.
Some of the more well-mined themes in CCM are evident, with titles like "Walk in the Light," "Simple Things," and "Always Will be There." This gives the disc a ring of familiarity, but it is a feeling of the CCM cassettes we put away in the late '80's. In other words, this is a very safe album, and you've heard a lot of stuff like it. And with the talent here, this is a shame.
2.5 tocks
