Christine Glass
Love and Poverty
Reviewed by Melody Alexander
Two years is a long time to wait for a new album. In the case of Christine Glass, however, the two years between her records seemed to be a blessing. While dealing with personal struggles in her own life, she learned how to be truly happy and at peace. From those lessons stemmed Love and Poverty, full of hopeful lyrics for those experiencing difficulty.
As usual, Glass' style is smooth, with gentle guitars backed by her strong and breathy vocals. Harmonies are layered delicately throughout, creating a warm and inviting tone. Produced by Mark Byrd (Common Children) and Steve Hindalong (The Choir), her sound continues to be strong, yet delicate and radiant.
"The Way You're Calling," a medium-paced rock song enhanced with violins and an extremely catchy melody, celebrates God's love for His creation. Examples of rain and wind are used to demonstrate how God reveals Himself in life every day to call His people to His side. "Poverty," a mellow song with relaxing guitars, was written when Glass realized everyone needs to see some kind of poverty before they can experience true love for each other.
"Waterfall" is a heartfelt expression of appreciation for God's eternal love. While Glass describes feelings of loss and overwhelming sadness, she also shares, immersed in emotion, that God can take away those feelings. In "Mysterious," she continues to wonder in simple innocence about God's ways.
Love and Poverty ends powerfully with "Many Waters," taken from the Wedding Cantata, by Daniel Pinkham. The ethereal song, somewhat reminiscent of a Gregorian church service, finds Glass repeating the lyrics Many waters cannot quench thou in rounds to complete an enchanting moment.
Love and Poverty is a breath of fresh air. It has a slightly more polished quality than Glass' first album, but lyrically, it goes deeper than many current albums. Love and Poverty gives listeners a private look inside one Christian's personal growth and faith in God.
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #82Reviewed by Doug Van PeltThis album was almost forgotten. We received it at a time when there was turnover in the editorial department and we prematurely thought perhaps it was too mellow to give coverage to. Then the CD itself was misplaced and we kept getting messages from the record company, asking when we were gonna give it coverage, and our first response was, "Well, whenever we hear it!" Then, when we moved our…