Reviews

MUSIC

Raw worship

Kiss The River, by Paul Oakley. Survivor Records (Kingsway Music), CD £14.99/Cassette £10.99

AIR guitarists of the world take note – Jesus, Friend Of Sinners is one song you simply won’t be able to resist. I couldn’t imagine a better opener for Paul Oakley’s third studio album than the definitive rendition of this high-octane rock anthem, but despite the temptation to put it on continuous play, I discover that what follows is almost as good.

On I Have Come To Love You, High Wire, So Good and Fix My Eyes Paul and the boys create walls of sound with guitars, drums and bass in ways which resemble a musical cross-fertilisation between 1990s’ Britpop and The Who in their heyday. Only when the title track comes along can I take a breather, and then it’s back to thunderous drum beats with Brighter Than The Sun.

The moodier One Thing provides another brief respite, before Cover Me notches up the pace again – the dramatic contrast between that and the acoustic In The Shadow Of The Cross is arresting, and an equally striking light/shade effect is achieved in the finale In The Stillness.

“Bold … unapologetic … raw” states the publicity, and it’s enjoyable too. I’ve long held that great worship songs don’t always have to be quiet and cosy.

Peter Dilley is a bass guitarist and co-ordinator/mentor for a support scheme for young people with learning disabilities, with the charity Interact

Less than meets the eye

The Safe Sites Internet Yellow Pages (Nelson, £19.99 via Christian bookshops or www.premieronline.co.uk)

We hesitated about including this title in our Reviews section, since it is so clearly designed for the American market, but it is produced by a Christian team and covers 10,000 'safe sites', so it had to be worth a look.

First the upside. The telephone directory-sized book, which comes with a CD-ROM with hyperlinks and trial filtering software, certainly has stacks of interesting places to go for everything from bible study aids, homework helps, parenting advice and website building tools. As with any list of links, you'll find some meet your needs rather better than others, but at least there's plenty to choose from.

It's well laid out, there are interesting snippets of information along the way, and while not every site is explicitly Christian, there are also the top 500 sites from Best of the Christian Web included.

Now the downside. A book is never a very satisfactory way of communicating links for the Internet, since the whole medium changes so fast. While the publishers are at pains to point out that the sites a) were safe and b) worked when they checked them, that doesn't guarantee they'll continue to. They do offer updates at the Nelson website, but who can be bothered to go there regularly?

And while clearly a hefty percentage of Christian content on the web is American, much of it struggles to relate to UK culture and there are very, very few British-based Christian sites mentioned. Far better to use our Webwatch on CFN, plus other good Christian sites and portals, to build up your bookmarks.

And finally, while the choice of sites is always going to be a little subjective, why the 18-site strong category on Yoga and T'ai Chi?! Plenty of believers would steer clear of that.

Worth £19.99? Not in our book. Better to spend the time online researching your own top sites - and share them with other CFN members!

Christian Family Network Review team

© Christian Family Network
is run by CPO, supported by
Care for the Family, Marriage Resource, Positive Parenting,
Care, Women Alive, Christian Herald and many others.


		MUSIC Raw worship Kiss The River, by Paul Oakley. Survivor Records (Kingsway Music), CD £14.99/Cassette £10.99 AIR guitarists of the world take note – Jesus, Friend Of Sinners is one song you simply won’t be able to resist. I couldn’t imagine a better opener for Paul Oakley’s third studio album than the definitive rendition of this high-octane rock anthem, but despite the temptation to put it on continuous play, I discover that what follows is almost as good. On I Have Come To Love You, High Wire, So Good and Fix My Eyes Paul and the boys create walls of sound with guitars, drums and bass in ways which resemble a musical cross-fertilisation between 1990s’ Britpop and The Who in their heyday. Only when the title track comes along can I take a breather, and then it’s back to thunderous drum beats with Brighter Than The Sun. The moodier One Thing provides another brief respite, before Cover Me notches up the pace again – the dramatic contrast between that and the acoustic In The Shadow Of The Cross is arresting, and an equally striking light/shade effect is achieved in the finale In The Stillness. “Bold … unapologetic … raw” states the publicity, and it’s enjoyable too. I’ve long held that great worship songs don’t always have to be quiet and cosy. Peter Dilley is a bass guitarist and co-ordinator/mentor for a support scheme for young people with learning disabilities, with the charity Interact Less than meets the eye The Safe Sites Internet Yellow Pages (Nelson, £19.99 via Christian bookshops or www.premieronline.co.uk) We hesitated about including this title in our Reviews section, since it is so clearly designed for the American market, but it is produced by a Christian team and covers 10,000 'safe sites', so it had to be worth a look. First the upside. The telephone directory-sized book, which comes with a CD-ROM with hyperlinks and trial filtering software, certainly has stacks of interesting places to go for everything from bible study aids, homework helps, parenting advice and website building tools. As with any list of links, you'll find some meet your needs rather better than others, but at least there's plenty to choose from. It's well laid out, there are interesting snippets of information along the way, and while not every site is explicitly Christian, there are also the top 500 sites from Best of the Christian Web included. Now the downside. A book is never a very satisfactory way of communicating links for the Internet, since the whole medium changes so fast. While the publishers are at pains to point out that the sites a) were safe and b) worked when they checked them, that doesn't guarantee they'll continue to. They do offer updates at the Nelson website, but who can be bothered to go there regularly? And while clearly a hefty percentage of Christian content on the web is American, much of it struggles to relate to UK culture and there are very, very few British-based Christian sites mentioned. Far better to use our Webwatch on CFN, plus other good Christian sites and portals, to build up your bookmarks. And finally, while the choice of sites is always going to be a little subjective, why the 18-site strong category on Yoga and T'ai Chi?! Plenty of believers would steer clear of that. Worth £19.99? Not in our book. Better to spend the time online researching your own top sites - and share them with other CFN members! Christian Family Network Review team © Christian Family Network is run by CPO, supported by Care for the Family, Marriage Resource, Positive Parenting, Care, Women Alive, Christian Herald and many others.