Reviewed by Susan Lumsden

The haircuts on the sleeve give it away. This is one for the archive. These two albums, now re-released on a single CD, show Card as he was in the early 80s. Though not unpleasant, this is for the CCM veteran, its frequently simplistic message most at home today when preaching to the converted. Here, Card explores biblical characters such as Simeon and Abraham, a clear lead into the unthumbed pages he has made melody of in his most recent series. He also reminds us he wrote a number of the songs made famous by Amy Grant, like "El Shaddai", here in its most Hebraic, and "I Have Decided", with a country feel complete with banjo. For the most part, strong vocals and dramatic synthetic strings are the order of the day; the only definite skip-over is "Tell The World That Jesus Loves You", where Card is accompanied by the kind of children we would all like to strangle. Generally speaking it's pleasant enough, but times have changed. This album shows us where US CCM was 10 years ago. Also, the bulk of these tracks have previously been reissued on The Early Works' compilation.

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