Review:

Love Was Here First

With a mantelpiece boasting songwriting awards and Canadian chart entries, and following her career-best ‘darker’ collection Pollyanna’s Attic, Carolyn Arends sets high expectations. She scores over many Christian releases by being honest about her life, so letting her hearers identify with her songs, and pointing the way forward to God’s grace.

Thankfully, this articulate writer always eschews cliché in favour of pithy and poetic lines that capture both her acute observations and our experience. For the first time, Arends expands her largely acoustic sound with discreet backing from the black gospel trio The Sojourners and a full brass section.

HIGH: ‘Standing in the Need of Prayer,’ warmed by harmonies, mandolin and The Sojourners.

LOW: That so few churches use insightful songs like these.

Published by: 2B Records