Artist: DeWayne Woods
Album: My Life’s Lyric
Release Date: June 21st, 2010
Style: Gospel / R & B / Soul / Choir
Label: Verity Records
Location: Chicago, IL

About:

Recently, Woods completed his second Verity Records/Quiet Water Entertainment release, MY LIFE’S LYRIC. The project’s concept centers on each song reflecting a testimony. For DeWayne, each track not only represents a different experience and a different aspect of his life, but most of all, each song expresses another trait of God’s awesome character.The follow-up to DeWayne Woods’ exhilarating debut brings a fresh set of Gospel worship standards and originals to the table for an unforgettable musical experience. My Life’s Lyric includes the hit single “Living On the Top” plus “Still Here,” “Lost,” and others.

According to DeWayne, this new project is more mature and sophisticated than his debut. He feels that his time in the industry has helped him grow and that the combination of songs is more eclectic than his first CD. But one thing Woods didn’t stray from was his exceptional production team. Well-known producers P.J. Morton, Daniel Weatherspoon and Aaron Lindsey all return and take their respective turns in the producer’s chair as do James Poyser and the production team of Phil and Calvin. He also enlisted his group “When Singers Meet” and a small group of session singers from Chicago to round out the impressive background vocals.

“MY LIFE’S LYRIC is an album full of testimonies of everything I have been through,” says Woods. “Jeremiah 29:11 is my favorite scripture. So to have such a powerful word as part of the foundation for this project, coupled with the opportunity to help shed light on someone’s situation, to me, that’s what it’s all about.”

Reviews:

“Very, very good CD. It would have been easy to disappoint following his great first album. This is a very solid CD. There are very few albums I can listen to from start to finish. I’m one of those people who take 3 or 4 tracks and ignore the rest. This is one of those rare albums that’s full of good songs.” - Robert

Track Listing:
1. Living On The Top
2. I Won’t Be Afraid
3. Still Here (feat. The Murrills)
4. What Kind Of Love
5. Good Times
6. God Can (feat. PJ Morton)
7. Lost
8. Sovereignly Reign
9. It Might Be Hope
10. Positive (feat. Daniel Weatherspoon)

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Artist: The Devil Wears Prada
Album: Zombie EP
Release Date: August 24th, 2010
Style: Metal/Hardcore/Metalcore
Label: Ferret Music
Location: Dayton, Ohio

About:

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA vocalist Mike Hranica previously told the Alternative Press about the upcoming CD, “We have about two weeks to do an EP. We haven’t really told anyone about it, so I’m not going to give away what the concept is, but it’s going to be something really fun.

“A lot of bands do cover albums just for fans to enjoy and kind of laugh at, and it’s going to be something kind of like that fun, but not covers. It’s not going to be a lot of full-length material, like what our next full-length will be. It’s going to be… I hate to use the word ‘brutal,’ but maybe something along those lines.”

2009 proved to be a breakthrough year for the young Christian metalcore band that has developed a mainstream buzz and secular cred. Beginning with a 43-date, completely sold out headline tour in spring 2009, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA — vocalist Hranica, guitarist/vocalist Jeremy DePoyster, guitarist Chris Rubey, bassist Andy Trick, keyboardistJames Baney, and Daniel Williams on drums went on to a main-stage slot on the Vans Warped Tour, and co-headlined (with ALL THAT REMAINS) the 27-date, fall ’09 Napalm & Noise tour.

Track Listing:

01. Escape
02. Anatomy
03. Outnumbered
04. Revive
05. Survivor

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Artist: Thad Cockrell
Album: To Be Loved
Release Date: October 13th, 2009
Style: Pop / Indie/ Country
Label: Yep Rock Records / Major 7 Music
Location: Nashville, TN / Raleigh, NC

About:

Cockrell is the only child amongst three sons not to become a pastor. While Cockrell has many songs reflecting his faith, it has been noted that Cockrell’s overall body of work doesn’t consistently contain these themes. He has commented that he has “lost fans for his religious convictions and alienated some Christians with songs that aren’t always about God”. An extensive Cockrell feature in Independent Weekly  concludes that “archetypal conflict-secular pleasures and aims versus Christian tenets and rules has powered Cockrell’s songwriting”.

Singer-songwriter Thad Cockrell offered up quite the gift this week: His LP, To Be Loved, is available as a free download for two weeks via online music hub NoiseTrade. The set a fleshing out of his 2007 EP of the same name, including the lovely, shuffly, Simon & Garfunkel-y standout “A Country of My Own” was originally made available in October of 2009. But the singer noted via Twitter that he hoped to give it a boost toward a broader audience, thus the gifting, which kicked off this Monday.

Review:

To Be Loved is the kind of record that puts things in perspective. Knowing a little bit about the artist, a preacher’s son who grew up in a home where secular music was forbidden and a graduate of Liberty University (founded by Jerry Falwell). I can’t imagine what realms of the soul he visited to write the songs on this exquisite recording. All I know is that it takes me places very few other contemporary artists can. “Pride (Won’t Get Us Where We’re Going),” “Beauty Has A Name,” “Rejoicing,” “Oh To Be Loved” any one of these treasures is worth the price of admission here. And collectively, it’s as compelling a project as I’ve heard in a very long time.

Band Members:

Kenny Vaughn: electric guitar | Aaron Oliva: bass | Evans Nicholson: drums | Mark Pisapia: drums | Joe Pisapia: electric guitar | Jason Lehning: bass | Alyn Love: pedal steel | Al Perkins: pedal steel | Kenny Hutson: pedal steel | Nate Stalfa: drums | Courtland Clement: guitar | Julie Lee: background vocals | Lex Price: guitars | Ian Fitchuck: drums | Logan Matheny: drums | Jeff Irwin: Bass.

Track Listing:

1. Pride (Won’t Get Us Where We’re Going)
2. Beauty Has A Name
3. Great Rejoicing
4. A Country of My Own
5. The Master’s Calling
6. Rosalyn
7. He Set Me Free
8. Look Up Sarah
9. I Cry
10. Oh To Be Loved

Listen to Thad Cockrell’s “To Be Loved“:

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Artist: City of Life
Album: City of Life Worship
Release Date: June 29th, 2010
Style: Praise & Worship / Gospel
Label: H2W Entertainment
Location: Kissimmee, FL

About:

This is an amazing worship album full of fresh, original songs. If you’re tired of hearing Christian artists remake the same worship songs that other artists have recorded, this album is for you! Favorites are FIRE, J-O-Y, We Cry, and Strongman, but they’re really all great tracks. Not a “filler” among them. City of LIfe Worship has created a great album. If you love worship, you won’t be disappointed!

Track Listing:

1. Fire  
2. I’m Changed
3. Song of the Free
4. Favor of Heaven
5. We Cry
6. Taking the Limits Off
7. You Stand
8. Draw Me Closer
9. I Want to Know What Love Is
10. Strongman
11. (Speaking Intro)
12. This Is Your House
13. J-O-Y

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Laila had it all-before she made the wrong choice. This wrong choice resulted in the life of another man-one she killed with her own hands. Now she is on the run from the sins of her past and has settled anew in Greenville, South Carolina. However, her past does not want to leave her alone. Now several different men are after her for different reasons, and the only person she can trust is Kyle, whom she barely knows. Laila also fears she is going insane because of the frequent and unexplained visions she keeps experiencing. Above all else, she knows she will have to confront her past eventually and take what’s coming to her, but what if there is another answer to her troubles? What if grace is real? What if God is real? She’ll have to find out-otherwise she’ll face death.

On the surface, Broken seems like an interesting book, mostly because it is largely based on the wrong choices of the lead. Travis Thrasher has somewhat abandoned his supernatural\horror kick he has been on for the past few years, but not really. Broken is much more meaningful than Ghostwriter and Isolation, but this does not make it an exemplary book.

Laila is the best character because her imperfect choices created a mess for herself. There seems to be a personality hovering beneath the surface, but it is not fully developed. There are only four other characters the plot focuses on, and none of them are very good either, but at least none of them are perfect. It’s hard to nail down a villain, because any of the characters could be labeled a villain in other circumstances. Basically, this is an average cast of characters because Travis was more interested in supernatural elements than character development.

The biggest factor in this novel’s fall from the Elite List is the vast and varied number of plot holes. There is no explanation for Laila’s strange visions, even though they help her save one character from death. One character appears in the middle of the plot with no past and explanation for where he came from or why he was involved in the situation. There are no plot points that can be nailed down because the plot meanders along in an abstract fashion, sometimes showing the present and sometimes explaining the past. The characters wander around their world but never really get anywhere or accomplish anything. The biggest thing the plot is missing is a purpose. The biggest factor that saves the plot is a key character death at the end caused by Laila’s wrong choices.

Travis seems to be making a roundabout journey back from his self-exile into the genre of horror. Broken is reminiscent of his past works, something he needs to return to in order to salvage his inconsistent career. Travis has much more potential as an author than he realizes, but he needs to tap into it before it’s too late.

Rating: 3/5

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