Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

IN THE MAINSTREAM   There is no getting away from this. It is quirky and quite odd and yet at the same time wonderful! Brother Danielson is Daniel Smith, main songwriter and lead singer with the family group The Danielson Famile, emerging with a solo debut though still relying on the support of his siblings and other sidemen like Sufjan Stevens. Smith actually produced Sufjan's recent albums and so there is a certain amount of musical crossover there. First thing that might disturb you is the falsetto squawk of Smith's voice - one part Darkness, one part Tiny Tim! Musically this fits next to recent recordings by The polyphonic Spree but remember that Danielson has been doing it for ages. Maybe there's now a market for people to enjoy it. Certainly it sounds unlike any other Christian music you'll ever have heard! It's littered with Christian imagery but carefully crafted to intrigue the unsaved rather than ram the Gospel down their collective throat. So there are spiritual themes like "Our Givest", which observes what we do with the gifts God gives us. It's actually serious stuff so the brilliant "Physician Heal Yourself" is an honest self evaluation of how our talk and walk are miles apart. By no means easy listening but this is creative and confronting musically and well worth exploring if you're tired of tidy soulless Christian music.

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