Two clues to the shape of James Grant's work are that he once fronted the jazz funk outfit Love Or Money and that his last album was a collaboration in writing with the poetic works of WH Auden, EE Cummings, Emily Dickinson, and William Blake. Holy Love is a majestic album, where the literary meets pop, jam packed full of sacred imagery and not a transcendent belief in sight. Grant's voice is immense in its depth and soulfulness and Jerry Douglas's dobro as well as Monica Queen and Karen Matheson's backing vocals add to songs of romantic yearning and exquisite playing. The title track and "The Streets You Walk Every Day" make the ordinary transcendent and "Mary Magdalene" and "The Soft Option" lose faith in religion and modern society without it.
