Reviewed by Kelly Hargie

From the minute I caught a glimpse of the sleeve of the girls immortalized by THAT Superchic[k] song my thoughts went something like this: "Oh great, just another American wanna-be princesses of pop girl-band, dull, heard it all before, 5 out of 10," etc. However, from the first chords of "On My Own", a rocky little Avril Lavinge style number (only in tune) I was annoyed, because I was, to say the least, rather impressed. BarlowGirl manage to pull off pop rock with great tunes like "Mirror" and "Superstar". The album, produced by Otto Price (dc Talk, Sonicflood) also features a few ballad tunes such as "Never Alone" and "Surrender" - and all without sounding pretentious. "Harder Than The First Time" set my feet in motion, and I couldn't stop singing it, repeatedly, much to the dismay of others, my voice being nowhere near as powerful as the Barlow sisters, Becca, Alyssa and Lauren. BarlowGirl are young, effortlessly stylish, poetic, romantic, enthusiastic rock chicks, in love with Jesus and not frightened to say so! The moral of this story.never judge a CD by its cover, you might just miss out on an unexpected collection of rather good, energising songs.

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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