Peter Shambrook's latest effort, Love Unseen, is a good example of what is wrong with the music business. But wait-I mean that as a compliment. This album is excellent. It has the kind of strong and solid sound and talented singing that would guarantee it a place on the Top-40 charts. There's just one problem-it's all about God, religion, and traditional values.
The first song, "I Believe in You," strikes the same man-woman chord of joy and love that all those hit songs are always about, but puts the credit for all that love right where it belongs-with God.
"Faith Again," with its pounding, insistent beat, sings the praises not of self-esteem or some ultimate other person, instead, the song trumpets the virtues of faith, a faith that "connects my heart to my brain," a genuine heresy in the world of pop music.
The slow-down "Watching Over You" is a charmer along with "A Season In The Year," about endings and beginnings and the way they so often are found in each other. It's an encouraging, yet realistic notion: "there's a season in the year for change/it's not the end of the story/but a turn of the page..."
"Landon's Farm" is an intriguing rock tribute to small town values and big-time faith. "Dark Side" is a real cry of anguish, an admission of mortal vulnerability and a witness of God's grace.
"Never Leave You Crying" takes on mental disability and child abuse, and finds solace in the promises of God. Shambrook reminds us that, whatever the world may do to us, Jesus says "come to me as a little child," and we know that he "will never leave you crying." In this world of monsters and molesters, it is a message all too many desperately need to hear.
"Just One Man" is a lovely song about Paul the apostle awaiting execution. It briefly but brilliantly tells the story of the man who persecuted Christians and then spent the rest of his life spreading the Gospel for "the love of just one man."
The title song is also the last, a sweet and personal song about the pain of leaving the ones you love as they sleep, even for just a little while. As he says, "that I'll be back soon/it doesn't help the frustration." A keen and loving observation, almost out of place these days in popular music.
So it looks like Peter Shambrook has written himself out of the Top-40. But, quite frankly, I wouldn't like it any other way.
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