Overflow

Item: A Better Place
Author: Burton Wray

A Better Place

(2004)

Reviewed by Burton Wray

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label Essential RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2004

ccm pop rock rock

There are a few labels where high expectations are a given when they have a new artist debut. One of those labels is Essential Records, home of Jars of Clay and Caedmon's Call, as well as quite a few other highly successful groups. When it was announced that Overflow would be on Essential Records, expectations were instantly high, before the group even played or sang a note. The good news is that while the CD is not amazing, it is good enough to make many CCM fans happy. It may not be as popular or as successful as label-mate Jars of Clay's debut CD was, but this CD is still quite good.

Overflow does a fine job of mixing pop and rock, sometimes sounding like one--other times sounding like the other. Many pop/rock groups are almost completely pop, but Overflow has some songs that are great pop and others that are wonderful rock. The CD opens with a song that typifies much of the project, as it has a mix of pop and rock feels to it. It has guitars that make it too hard to classify as pop, but overall it's still too light to classify as a full-on rock song. The second and third songs are catchy pop tracks with choruses that will stick in the listener's head for days. The fourth song is a light rock ballad while the fifth tune, "Cry On My Shoulder," is a light pop ballad--both of which are enjoyable.

The pace picks up again with "What's Missing," a quirky, fun rock song. "My Days Are Better" slows the pace down, and "Forever" slows things down even more. The latter is a light pop ballad, which speaks of God loving the singer forever. The band isn't done rocking yet so the rock sound returns with "Anything But You." The CD closes with "Just For Me," a slow pop track, which asks God "When You showed the sun where to rise and the night where to hide / Was it all just for me?"

This project has one other similarity with Jars of Clay's debut CD: unfortunately both are way too short. This project clocks in at 37:45 minutes, which will disappoint many listeners who would like an album at least 45 minutes long.

The lyrics are not the deepest in CCM, but they are still quite good, which is not surprising since Scotty Wilbanks (of NewSong fame) co-wrote every song on this project. One has to give the members of Overflow props for co-writing every song on the CD as many new artists are content to just take the songs that are given to them.

Overflow has delivered a very fine debut project, A Better Place, which will appeal to many fans of pop and rock. Considering the quality of this debut album and the team that Overflow is likely to have around the band at Essential, one can most likely expect great things from them in the years to come.

3.5 tocks