Love & War (CD - 2009)

Personnel: Rebecca Barlow (vocals, guitar); Alyssa Barlow (vocals, keyboards); Lauren Barlow (vocals, drums); Otto Price (guitar, synthesizer, programming); John Painter (electric guitar, woodwinds, horns); Otto Price III, Barry Graul (electric guitar); David Davidson , David Angell (violin); Kristin Wilkinson (viola); John Catchings (cello); David Das (programming).

Audio Mixer: Ainslie Grosser .

Recording information: The Sound Labs, Brentwood, TN.

Director: Paul T. Kwami.

Over the course of several hit albums, Christian girl group Barlowgirl established itself as a successful crossover act by mastering a variety of secular pop and rock styles and matching them to inspirational (but not always explicitly religious) lyrics. Often sounding like a radio-ready mix of Avril Lavigne, Evanescence, and Vanessa Carlton, the trio appealed to an unusually wide variety of music fans. LOVE & WAR finds the Illinois-based trio expanding its sound even further, incorporating influences of heavy rock and dance music. The opening track "Come Alive" is driven by a straight-up disco beat, a driving bass line, and Killers-esque edgy guitars, while "Time For You To Go" finds the singers' smooth vocal harmonies and biting anti-mass media social commentary backed by a nu-metal-ish funky beat and thrashy drumming. "Hello Sunshine" is a horse of a different, bright, color, its jaunty piano, joyful melody, fuzzy lead guitar, and Bach trumpet blasts clearly influenced by Paul McCartney-authored songs from the Beatles' WHITE ALBUM era. A diverse, engaging exercise in several different subgenres of Christian music, LOVE & WAR appeals to both the CCM heart and the pop sweet tooth. minimize