The fledgling Rocketown record label has been responsible for discovering some of the brightest talents currently on the Christian music scene (Chris Rice, Ginny Owens), and has also seen its share of sales disappointments (Wilshire, Wayne Kirkpatrick). The newest offering is piano-pop artist Ronnie Freeman.
The problems with the album are varied. Most of the songs are content to groove along at the same tempo and end up congealing into a faceless mass. Ginny Owens' vocals are barely noticeable on "Don't Give Up On Me," a song which she and Freeman co-wrote. The lyrics, while usually good, fall into tired clichés on "Better Than This." The album bogs down in the middle, which smacks heavily of filler and seem like throwaway tracks from Mark Schultz's latest writing session.
A notable exception is "Satisfied," a stellar ballad that gives Freeman an opportunity to stretch his vocal range. "Not Gonna" boasts a sit-up-and-take-notice string intro and a storming sea of guitars on the chorus, but the bright spots are few and far between on this project.
Freeman does show promise as a lyricist, even if the music doesn't quite hold interest. "The Only Thing" draws engaging word pictures as it explores celebrity as related to human nature. "Come To The River," while musically sparse, is a simple ballad about God's grace.
Fans of Mark Schultz and Nichole Nordeman might give this one a listen, but in the end, Freeman doesn't distinguish himself from those two in any way. He should take a page from Schultz' book and mix up the musical styles on his next effort.
3 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Josh McConnellHandpicked by Michael W. Smith, Ronnie Freeman writes (or co-writes) all of the songs on his 11-track debut album, and I must say he did a good job! One of the things I noticed about the album, however, is that you will keep listening until about the 9th track, where you start losing a little interest. But then you really lose interest come the 10th and 11th tracks, where everything slows down to…
