Diamonds and Rain

Album review

Steve Hindalong and Derri Daugherty began their career in Christian Contemporary Music under the name "The Youth Choir," recording keyboard-heavy '80s pop which fit comfortably into the CCM radio scene of its time. This was their first record under the abridged band name "The Choir" (Word Records promoted this album heavily on CCM radio with ads that loudly proclaimed, "The Youth Choir has grown up!"). In retrospect, it seems an odd amalgam of their previous teenybopper pop sound and the mature progressive guitar-rock sound they would later develop. These songs often blend innocent, childlike melodies with dark instrumental textures -- a stylistic technique which would remain a Choir trademark in their later albums. But there are also a lot of distinctly Youthful pop numbers, burdened with '80s-style overproduction. This mixture of the mainstream with the alternative is not surprising, considering the producer is Charlie Peacock (a creative CCM popster who established his "progressive" credentials in the early 1980s with vaguely avant-garde, low-budget solo albums). Diamonds in the Rain is filled with slightly antimelodic keyboard arrangements, heavily layered click tracks, and other classic Peacockisms.

© Darryl Cater /TiVo