Reviewed by Graeme Crawford

Claas P Jambor is a German citizen, who spent part of his youth in the US. This is his fifth album, but the first that has been available worldwide. His mixed upbringing obviously has a massive influence on his style, with his press release describes his sound as combining "German rock elements with US country grooves", and being like Counting Crows, REM, and John Mayer. Jambor's voice, which they claim has a four octave range, is reminiscent of Dan Haseltine of Jars Of Clay, especially on the ballads eg "Breath" and "Stars". He tends to take quite a mainstream approach to his ministry, rather than being overtly Christian. His songs speak of being in love ("The Idiot"), the pressure to write hit singles ("Favorite Song"), and childhood memories ("Stars"). The slow and mid-paced songs highlight Jambor's American influences, while the more uptempo numbers emphasise his European heritage with more keyboards, use of vocoder, and huge choruses. The guitar sound is very clean with little use of effects, again a nod to the European influences, while the production from keyboardist and co-writer Udo Rinklin is crisp and uncluttered. The album is a grower, and should appeal to fans of intelligent and poetic music.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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