 kevindavis's Music and Book Reviews |
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Solid introspective debut | Posted October 17, 2008
Joy Whitlock the newest artist with Ardent Records, home of Skillet and Todd Agnew, has a great story to tell. Joy is a folk-style singer-songwriter similar to KT Tunstall, Kendall Payne and Jennifer Knapp. If every flock needed a black sheep, Joy readily filled that role maybe too eagerly seeking to numb a pain that could only be healed by the One who created her. “I tried to fill the emptiness I felt with anything that numbed or felt like love – drugs… promiscuity… the usual stuff.” She looks back with regret now at the pain she caused her mother and father as well as the embarrassment she subjected them to with her actions, a theme she touches on in the standout track Faith Don’t Fail based on Luke 22:31-32. The scene Joy so vividly recounts is from Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”. It’s not exactly a movie you look forward to seeing. But I went and accepted Jesus that night.”
God And A Girl is a great title for this solid introspective debut album. Joy really invites you into her life and expresses her struggles in a bare honesty that is refreshing. Some great examples are the opening track Cost Of Being Free, Don't Look Down-which to me resembles the great alternative rock singer Aimee Mann, the first single Holding Onto Me, Behind The Scenes and another standout track is the rocker Not Through With You, which to me resembled a rock track like Bring Me To Life by Evanescence. If you like introspective songs and alternative rock singer-songwriters Plumb, Alanis Morissette, KT Tunstall and if you are looking for CCM's next Jennifer Knapp, look no further than Joy Whitlock.
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