Released 25 years ago today, this is the first album by Christian rock/pop band Downhere. Originally released in 1999 on a small Canadian label, the album was heavily reworked and re-recorded for this Word Records release. Lead singers Marc Martel and Jason Germain have excellent voices and the band are clearly experienced musicians despite this being their major-label debut. Many of the songs are guitar-heavy and have a blues-tinged rock style to them, though a few have a quieter, piano-based ballad to them. The lyrics contain a lot of spiritual references and point to God as the creator of all, but also allude to life's struggles as well. When this album came out, it was one of my favorites for a few years there, but I have definitely listened to it much less in the last few decades. And for some reason, despite loving this album, I found Downhere's next few albums much less enjoyable for some reason; I'm really not sure why. Not on streaming is a funny hidden track on the CD about how "rock stars need money; we can't live on baloney." Marc Martel went on to record vocals for some parts of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and had a solo career after Downhere disbanded in 2012.

Release Year: 2001
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