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Sarah Masen is a beautiful human being. Without doubt culturally good looking too. She is a gentle and tender soul. Aye and maybe a little bit whimsical too. Beneath all that she is a mind and heart and soul that is searching deep within herself and her world and her God for what this big hurting and hopeful world is all about. Beneath the tenderness she is courageous enough to ask the hardest of questions. Beneath the beauty she will look in the face of the world’s most ugly realities and provoke the questions and grope for some direction towards answers.

Dreamlife of Angels is Sarah Masen made sound. It’s as accurate as any artist could ever be in describing themselves through their songs. It’s a stunning work of musical breathtake with its catchy melodies and the little brushes of musical accompaniment. It’s got quirky little phrasings that have you alert with surprise and the most sensitive of little aural thrills. Whether it’s the tranquil shuffle of the hopeful "Valley," the stillness of "Love Is Breathing" about her daughter Dorothy Day Dark’s birth, the folksome endearment of her Supertramp cover "Give a Little Bit," the acoustic funky David Gray-like groove of "Midnight" or the rockier "Hit N Run," less is more and the more you listen the more you get from the spaciousness of John Jennings (Mary Chapin Carpenter) production.

Where Masen stands apart is in her literary approach to songwriting. She is a young woman in love with words and ideas and imagination. She has this God given ability to express the light and the dark and the shades where we all walk in between. There are a few gloomy shadows and then there are these moments when the bright makes the breaks in the clouds all sparkle and beam. She describes her life with its recent marriage and even more recent motherhood and the friends around her and tries to seek some insight to who we are, where we are, what we are going through and how we start to hear somewhere more worthwhile and peaceful. It’s an album full of hope and love and a new kingdom coming in the midst of the old one. It’s dangerous because it’s honest and it’s auspicious because it is grace drenched. 

It may just be March and the first few months of the year are always a little lacking in album releases but it may be safe enough to say even now that this is the best album that will come out of the Christian industry in 2001. If anything betters it you should buy it for sure.

Steve Stockman 2/3/2001

Sarah Masen has come a long way.  The girl from Royal Oak Michigan has grown noticeably from her early work to her newest release, The Dreamlife of Angels.   This album has a more mature Sarah writing more mellow stuff with some  brand new themes.  

Between her last release and this one Sarah has gone through some big changes, namely getting married and having a child.  Those ideas of change and new life are very evident themes on this album.   And Sarah has a very beautiful voice that has a uniqueness about it that is fantastic. 

This album is much more mellow then her previous releases, and upon the first  listen some fans might be a little disappointed.  There isn't the catchiness  of past releases.  There isn't any "hooks" that you find yourself humming after you listen to it, like there were on her first few releases.  But that is easy to ignore when you listen to the album more.

The poetry is subtle.  The music is calming. It makes for a peaceful, maternal album.  It's comforting.  Something that is needed in the world today.  I think this album has a way of bringing a sense of peace to the listener.
 
Stand out tracks include  "Girl on Fire"  which is perhaps the most rocking song on the disc.  With a catchy beat, this song is the most reminiscent of  her early work.  This song is pure pop bliss, almost written just for a bright, sunny, warm spring day.  Another standout is the closing song, "Home" which is more of a lullaby then a typical song.  This song is talks about the idea of there being peace in Sarah's life.  It's as if  this song was inspired by her sleeping baby.  You get that sense from the peacefulness of the song.  

This album is a nice change from Sarah. At first it's easy to be disappointed, but this album continues to impress. The title says it all, this is what I imagine The Dreamlife of Angels to be all about. The sense of  peace is worth the price of the album alone. 

Aaron Bell 3/31/2001