Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

Having been recently signed to Seattle's BEC Recordings, Nashville singer/songwriter Jessa Anderson's record label debut, after two independent albums, sees her team up with respected producers Brandon Perdue (Kellie Pickler, The Ember Days) and Kevin Bruchert (The Glorious Unseen, Abandon). Anderson's pleasant enough delivery is very much in the vein of female counterparts Ginny Owens and Vanessa Carlton but such similarities, coupled with a collection of occassionally bland self-penned songs, make for an album that sounds as though it's all been done before. With an obvious desire to glorify God, Anderson chooses to include the worshipful "Offering" and "Worship The Lamb" but more personal songs such as the title track and "Don't Know" come across as navel gazing. By far the best cuts on the album are the title and the radio friendly "I Won't Break". Those two are strong enough to make the album worth investigating.

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.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.

Jessa Anderson’s second independent release fell into the hands of someone at BEC Recordings and soon evolved into her label debut, Not Myself Anymore.

The label liked Jessa’s sound so much, in fact, that aside from a few minor tweaks and repackaged artwork, she never had to re-record a single song, a tribute to Anderson’s talent and her producers’—Brandon Perdue and Kevin Bruchert— attention to detail.

Drawing from an influential pool of strong female songwriters such as Sara Groves, Nichole Nordeman and Ginny Owens, Anderson’s music reflects a constant wrestling with the unknown and the darkest parts of humanity right alongside the gritty, everyday things that make up the human life. “I always gravitated toward women who were writing their own music and just that honesty. That’s what I like to listen to, and hopefully that’s what I’m communicating when I’m writing songs, too,” she shares.