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There has been a lot of hype surrounding the release of Christian pop/dance trio Out of Eden's latest project, This is Your Life. Part of it is due to the fact that Out of Eden has not recorded any new music in a couple of years. Part of is due to early industry reports, which heralded This is Your Life as Out of Eden's best record to date. Much of the hype is likely due to the recent success of Out of Eden's musical counterparts, Destiny's Child and Mary Mary.

Is all of the hype deserved? Yes it is, in fact. Hyped up CD's usually disappoint, but This is Your Life is about what I expected it would be. It's a solid alternative to the less-than-wholesome tunes of Destiny's Child. Fans of the pop/dance/R&B genre should eat it up. Rock fans will probably find it irritating, but all in all, the album is satisfying.

The highlights of This is Your Life come when Out of Eden tries to experiment or be creative.  "Showpiece" assaults the way that our culture expects women to act and dress, and "Now I Sing" is a Gospel-flavored tune that resembles Mary Mary or One Nation Crew. Other impressive moments include the use of horns on the dance cut "Different Now" and the aptly-named "Meditate," which borrows lyrically from Matt Redman's "Better is One Day."

Unfortunately, half of the album is just standard pop fare. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but Out of Eden obviously has a more daring side, so more risks would have made for a more exciting album. Personally, I would like it if the group experimented with the Gospel-type sounds of "Now I Sing" some more.

This is Your Life is a good album. Out of Eden could have made it great, which is disappointing, but the record is still a good, clean, fun collection of songs that display a little bit more inventiveness- and modesty- than mainstream acts like Destiny's Child.

Josh Hurst 2/9/2002