Get Your Music on Amazon!
Get Your Music - and everything else - on Amazon! All purchases made on Amazon through this link earn a commission for Jesusfreakhideout.com!

JFH Music Review


Citizen Way, Love Is A Lion
CLICK COVER TO ENLARGE

Citizen Way
Love Is A Lion



Artist Info: Discography
Genre(s): Pop / Pop Rock
Album length: 11 tracks: 41 minutes, 7 seconds
Street Date: October 18, 2019


READER RATING:   


While there probably isn't a rule etched in stone or listed in a handbook somewhere saying as much, most musicians, whether they are consciously aware of it or not, tend to order the songs on a given project so that the first few cuts are among the strongest. This is certainly the case with Love is a Lion, the third effort from the Chicago-area trio, Citizen Way. With a pop sensibility as sweeping as it is melodic, it's hard to imagine a more rousing album (or concert) opener than "The Lord's Prayer." Just as impressive is "Love Has Won," a loping, folk-tinged anthem of hope to the lonely and hurting.

Unfortunately, like so many of their contemporaries, the CW collective spends the next seven slots in the running order churning out one mostly nondescript, made-for-radio pop/worship number after another. To the group's credit, the title track does rise ever so slightly above the average value thanks to its infectiously terse tribal rhythms. And "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is likewise blessed with a modestly engaging light funk vibe. By and large, though, the second section of the record is saddled with a lethargy and repetition that ultimately serve to bring its encouraging opening momentum to a virtual halt.

Thankfully, the proverbial ship is righted, for the most part, by the two closing compositions. The beautiful piano-based ballad, "Be Still," takes the best aspects of Christian pop over the past four-plus decades and distills them down into a single four-minute piece that is as evocative as it is timeless. And the decidedly old school lyrics found on the joyous Bart Millard-assisted gospel rave-up, "WaveWalker," ("I'm a wavewalker/ dancing on water/ When the devil tried to shake me/ I just pray harder") are just the sort of soulful infusion that inspirational pop radio needs here in the latter half of 2019.

Top 40 listeners will likely enjoy the album from start to finish given the high quality of the opening and closing song pairs together with the fact that the remainder of the release is roughly on par with the bulk of what they hear on radio. For everyone else, though, the best approach would be to skip the middle portion of the record - aside from perhaps "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and the title cut - and focus their attention on the tracks at either end.

- Review date: 11/15/19, written by Bert Gangl of Jesusfreakhideout.com



(JFH Sponsor Spot)

Check out JFH's Lloyd in his first-ever childrens book!

 

. Record Label: Fair Trade Services
. Album length: 11 tracks: 41 minutes, 7 seconds
. Street Date: October 18, 2019
. Buy It: iTunes
. Buy It: Amazon.com (CD)
. Buy It: Amazon Music (MP3)

  1. The Lord's Prayer (3:53)
  2. Love Has Won (4:22)
  3. Mountains (3:11)
  4. God You Are Good (3:40)
  5. Peace Like A River (3:16)
  6. The Hope Song (4:03)
  7. Love Is A Lion (3:24)
  8. You Loved Me Anyway (3:35)
  9. Hallowed Be Thy Name (3:52)
  10. Be Still (4:37)
  11. WaveWalker (feat. Bart Millard) (3:14)

 

 JFH Album Sample Player

 



Leave a Comment

 

 

go to main Album review page
go to Album review archive

 

 

                 
Check out JFH's Lloyd in his first-ever childrens book!

Search JFH



This Friday, May 16, 2025
ALBUMS
Confessions of a Traitor This Pain Will Serve You [Facedown]
Free Worship Praise Before It Happens [BEC]
GVTH DVDDY GVTH DVDDY [Velvet Blue]
Karen Peck & New River Good Answers [Daywind]
Lecrae & Miles Minnick Get Well Soon! [Reach]
Seventh Day Slumber Fractured Paradise: Garden of Shadows [Rockfest]
Sons of Sunday Sons of Sunday [Elevation]

SINGLES
AyeTJ Outdated - Single [Syntax]
Elan Brio Perfect Timing - Single (independent)
Melissa D Will I Be Bored in Heaven? - Single (independent)
Will Kellum Ready or Not - Single [Syntax]
Britt Nicole FAITH - Single (independent)
Makara Walk By Faith - Single [DREAM/DBMIX]
MAYIA Where Do I Go? (ft. Cutright) - Single [Syntax]
Matt Sassano My Armor - Single (independent)
Seph Schlueter Won't Start Now - Single [Provident]

VINYL
Petra The Best For Last (Studio Edition) Vinyl [Girder]

Next Tuesday, May 20, 2025
BOOKS
Shai Linne Penelope Judd [B&H]
Tauren Wells Joy Bomb: Unleash Jesus’s Explosive Joy for an Extraordinary Life [Zondervan]

Next Friday, May 23, 2025
ALBUMS
Big Daddy Weave Let It Begin [Curb]
ELEVATION RHYTHM Victory Lap [Elevation]
Signum Regis The Eyes of Power (Remixed & Remastered 2025) [Beyond the Storm]

SINGLES
Roxanne Grace Road Trip - Single [DREAM]
V1 Worship Fool for You - Single [DREAM Worship]



For all release dates, click here!
 

Join honey and save on online purchases!
Get all of JFH's indie compilation now totally free!
Check out depositphotos for royalty free images