Sorted Magazine

Tag: Rob Allwright

  • Music: Waiting for the Dawn

    Digital Editor’s Note: I’m excited and proud to welcome Rob Allwright as a Guest Writer here at the Sorted Magazine website. Rob brings a wealth of experience and is one of the most respected Christian reviewers in the UK. The energy Rob devotes to supporting and encouraging Christian creatives is staggering. His review show One Man In The Middle is broadcast by Branch FM, Heartsong Live and Hope FM. And I’m just a teensy bit excited that he has joined the wonderful peeps at the Manchester based broadcaster Konnect Radio!

    Rob writes: If you have never come across the husband and wife duo Salt of the Sound then this is a great EP to introduce to you. They have a wonderful way with working with a song to make it feel like an incredibly personal experience and use ambient and atmospheric qualities to open up the soundscape beyond the room around you. This EP is a few years old and their sound has continued to develop since then, but there are still many of those qualities in this release along with some familiar tunes and the beautifully haunting vocal from Anita.

    The first track is the familiar O Come, O Come Emmanuel which is a great opener because it is nice and familiar, you can compare it to other versions of the song and decide if this is something that you like. For me, I love it. It’s one of those tracks that you never really want to end! Sadly it ends all too quickly at just one minute and 37 seconds, but then we are into the original compositions. The first of these is a different look at the idea of Christ being the light of the world as Shine So Bright describes a room with no windows or doors, until Christ comes like a candle into that room pushing away the darkness, and the song concludes with us reflecting Jesus to the world around us. This is all set against a percussive background of musical twinkling and the atmospheric vocals. White Forests is an understated track which whispers in the background talking about Yule as the name for Christmas as the sense of longing for hope and peace.

    The music and the effects aren’t just background in Salt of the Sounds tracks, they tell the story in their own right, even in those tracks that have lyrics the music is given space to be explored, but it comes into it’s own when there is a full instrumental track. From Afar is one of these that takes you on a journey that it yours to interpret, whatever you make of it, it’s a beautiful trip! The title track Waiting for the Dawn uses the familiar words Silent Night, Holy Night with a different harmony to open up the world waiting for the Saviour to be born. It talks about a lonely and weary world but the dawn brings a new hope to those who are waiting for the dawn. The repeated name of Emmanuel and a recap of the idea of a weary world then leads into the final track which is their own take on the chorus of O Come Let Us Adore Him but with a subtitle of The Day Has Dawned which leads us from the night of the shining star and those waiting, to a call to worship Christ as the promised hope and Saviour now that the daylight has come again!

    This brings a whole reflective journey to the Christmas celebrations and I have had the pleasure of setting aside some time to listen to this for personal meditation and it really is a beautiful and ambient sound that allows for this. It sits in the back of the consciousness providing a little direction as you dwell upon Christmas. It also makes excellent background music that can just wash over your soul. For a few pounds this EP is available to add to your collection you can thank me later, once you have thoroughly chilled out, which is normally badly needed through the weeks of advent!

    Music | Salt of the Sound

    Main Photo Credit: Simon Wilkes via Unsplash

  • Music: The Advent of Christmas by Matt Maher

    Digital Editor’s Note: I’m excited and proud to welcome Rob Allwright as a Guest Writer here at the Sorted Magazine website. Rob brings a wealth of experience and is one of the most respected Christian reviewers in the UK. The energy Rob devotes to supporting and encouraging Christian creatives is staggering. His review show One Man In The Middle is broadcast by Branch FM, Heartsong Live and Hope FM. And I’m just a teensy bit excited that he has joined the wonderful peeps at the Manchester based broadcaster Konnect Radio!

    Rob writes: Over the years Matt Maher has released a number of Christmas singles, but this album is his first collection of Christmas songs, this album isn’t just about Christmas itself though, it’s about the build-up, the anticipation and the message of hope that is prevalent through this time. The album itself is made up of a few familiar festive songs, and many more original songs to bring us to a total of 13 tracks in all.

    The album starts off with Gabriel’s Message which is a surprisingly traditional track for this collection. It’s not a Christmas carol that I am terribly familiar with, but I have heard it sung by the traditional Anglican choirs. This sets out the beginning of the Christmas story as Gabriel brings God’s message to Mary which is as good a place to start in thinking about advent. Matt keeps a fairly traditional feel to this track with a choral emphasis on the Gloria refrain. Matt follows this up with a  version of He Shall Reign Forevermore which Matt wrote with Chris Tomlin, previously featured on Tomlin’s 2015 Adore album. Both of these tracks work well with Maher’s vocals with some great emphasis put behind parts of the verses bringing these to life. These first few tracks are on the serious side of Christmas considering what the Jesus’ birth means for us and for humanity. Born On This Day is the third of these as it considers the meaning of Emmanuel as God with us and how Christmas paves the way for our forgiveness and salvation through Jesus.

    Next there is a slight change as we get that song that is so full of Christmas meaning, Jingle Bells. It’s got a bit of a Jazzy feel to this version, it’s not quite Bing Crosby but it’s quite enjoyable none the less. Another well known carol is up next with the gentle track of The First Noel, this version does have an additional chorus which doesn’t really add much to the original, but it works reasonably well. The main focus for this track is the vocal, backed for the most part of the song by just a piano, Matt carries this song well. Then we are into one of the key tracks on this album which is Hope For Everyone and it expresses just that in an upbeat style. Advent is about hope, Jesus’ incarnation offers something new, from the Angel’s declaring the birth, the wise men seeing the sign in the sky and for everyone waiting for the promise of a saviour amongst men. Don’t let the chorus catch you out on this track as the first couple of lines seem to be sung in isolation with no music or other sounds between them making you wonder for a split second if something has paused the playback.

    Glory (Let There Be Peace) could almost be sung in church at any point. Other than the references to Emmanuel and the Angel’s song it doesn’t really sound like much of a Christmas song. Of course the next track O Come, O Come Emmanuel is incredibly Christmassy and Maher has done a great job of breaking this out from the Christmas hymn that can at times be quite slow into a very upbeat and joyful song. He has even managed to insert sleigh bells into the recording which works really well. There is just one guest vocal on this album that is credited and that is found in Always Carry You. It’s by none other than Amy Grant who brings a great vocal to this track which blends really well with Maher’s voice. The issue I have with this song is that it doesn’t really make a huge amount of sense to the listener, well not to this listener anyway. Perhaps its about Mary carrying Jesus and holding these things in her heart, but I am not totally convinced! Love Came Down To Bethlehem is another co-write, this time with Jon Guerra. This track sounds like a traditional Christmas Carol and certainly seems to borrow some phrases from other places making this seem more familiar than it actually is.

    Moving the style more towards a folk sound it seems that Matt has taken a page out of Rend Collective’s book for the very upbeat Hark The Herald Angels Sing which features an Irish whistle and flute along with the acoustic guitars. It is at this point that it seems Matt has allowed himself to let his hair down a little and Little Merry Christmas is much more a tongue-in-cheek look at the trappings that go with Christmas. Trees, twinkly lights and hopefully silent nights if the kids go to sleep, of course the theme is that being with the one that you love at Christmas is the best thing that can happen. The last song also fits with a different aspect of Christmas, reminding us to spend it well and remember those that are no longer here to celebrate it with us. There are memories to be made and a hope to remember as Matt wishes us a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

    Matt has done well to incorporate many aspects of the season of advent into this album. He’s definitely kept the message of the hope that Jesus Christ is for the world through many of these tracks but also the joy of the time of year. There are some songs that don’t work as well as others, but it seems that Matt has had a lot of fun to re-imagine some of the traditional and well known songs. I love the way that he brings a swing flavour to Jingle Bells and although it’s been done before it still sounds great. I really liked the version of Hark the Herald Angels Sing as well. Of the original tracks there are a number that work well, but a couple that just didn’t quite work for me. It’s my first Christmas album for the year so I have enjoyed this selection, but there are definitely tracks that wouldn’t make it onto my Christmas playlist!

    The Advent of Christmas – Matt Maher| Free Delivery at Eden.co.uk

    Main Photo Credit: Ebeuen Clemente via Unsplash

  • Music: A Festival of Christmas by All Souls Orchestra

    Digital Editor’s Note: I’m excited and proud to welcome Rob Allwright as a Guest Writer here at the Sorted Magazine website. Rob brings a wealth of experience and is one of the most respected Christian reviewers in the UK. The energy Rob devotes to supporting and encouraging Christian creatives is staggering. His review show One Man In The Middle is broadcast by Branch FM, Heartsong Live and Hope FM. And I’m just a teensy bit excited that he has joined the wonderful peeps at the Manchester based broadcaster Konnect Radio!

    Rob writes: For those who love their Christmas music with a touch of class then you need look no further than this classic album from All Souls Orchestra in London. Marked as Prom Praise Celebrates Christmas this album takes you on a classical journey through instrumentals of some of the best loved Christmas Carols and songs. Arranged and conducted by Dr Noel Tredinnick this album captures a great crisp orchestral sound which will bring a warm glow to any room where it is played!

    The first track A Christmas Festival is a bit of a medley of many different Christmas songs brilliantly wrapped up together in one brilliant piece of music and you can’t help but be swept into the Christmas spirit with this. While this is one piece of music it brilliantly captures the different elements of the various songs included here, there is time to dwell in a couple of parts before you are swept along to something else. This first track is just under seven minutes long and it really flies past! The second track also takes pieces from some of the more majestic sounding Christmas hymns. In The Bleak Midwinter, O Come All Ye Faithful, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and others are blended together to become A Christmas Overture.

    The next track is Silent Night which, when it comes to Carols is many people’s favourite. They have certainly done it justice with this version as there is a little prelude before the Cello’s come in with the main harmony and slowly other areas of the orchestra work their way into the familiar tune. It was intended that these versions of the songs would be an excellent backdrop for the Christmas season, but additionally they should be music that could be sung to as well if that is something you wanted to do. With these tracks that are well known they have kept the arrangements relatively straight forward, with a bit of an intricate introduction and then into the main body of the music. There are some rather grand openings, such as the amazing organ opening up It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.

    Along with the classics and the medleys there are some less well known tracks, including From The Squalor Of A Borrowed Stable by Stuart Townend which has never really broken out of the church in the way that it should have done, because it is a truly beautiful song. A track that I am not terribly familiar with is Overture: Hansel and Gretel originally composed by Engelbert Humperdinck which is included on this album and shows that this orchestra aren’t afraid to take on something a little more rare and challenging. The last medley on the album is the A Festival of Carols which combines another whole load of well known tunes starting with Hark, The Herald Angels Sing these even re-cover some ground with different interpretations of some carols that have appeared previously.

    This may not be the most high-brow of orchestra’s but I think that they have done a great job with these arrangements to bring these carols to life as instrumentals. These could easily play in the background throughout the whole of the Christmas period, through dinner parties, family gatherings and more, additionally they could be used for a little bit of Carol worship too for small groups or personal worship. I’m not a big orchestral or classical music fan but I really enjoyed these and appreciate the talent from every member of the orchestra.

    A Festival of Christmas – Prom Praise celebrates Christmas – All Souls Music

    Main Photo Credit: Jack Sharp via Unsplash

  • Review: Home by Jo Swinney

    Digital Editor’s Note: I’m excited and proud to welcome Rob Allwright as a Guest Writer here at the Sorted Magazine website. Rob brings a wealth of experience and is one of the most respected Christian reviewers in the UK. The energy Rob devotes to supporting and encouraging Christian creatives is staggering. His review show One Man In The Middle is broadcast by Branch FM, Heartsong Live and Hope FM. And I’m just a teensy bit excited that he will soon be joining the wonderful peeps at the Manchester based broadcaster Konnect Radio!

    Rob writes: Jo Swinney was a new name to me, but this is her third book, she has also written God Hunting and Through The Dark Woods but this book sounds a little different. Simply called Home – The Quest To Belong. This is not a tie-in with the Dreamworks animation but instead looks at our yearning for somewhere to call home, even for those who don’t actually base themselves in something permanent and solid.

    Part of this book is relating the author’s own experiences finding what makes ‘home’ for her. From what she explains here, she is quite qualified to expand on the understanding of home. For some of us home is just the place we find ourselves living, we’ve lived with parents, maybe had some college experiences, travelled but settled in to the work/home life which we currently enjoy. For Jo it was a little different, born in England, but moving to Portugal early in life, moving around through a few homes before her parents settled somewhere, but due to the nature of their job there was a constant community of people coming and going through the property. Then being sent back to boarding school in England, before going to university and then moving to Canada, via a gap-year in Zimbabwe. Then moving back to England with her new husband and moving into houses tied to his job role. It sounds exhausting just thinking about it. In among all that transience, Swinney lost her sense of what home was, before eventually rediscovering it. Through this she has realised that it’s not just the homeless who don’t really know where home is.

    At the beginning of the book Swinney seems a little bit apologetic that she is going to look at this subject, not just from her own experience, but also from a faith perspective. Having said that she explains that it is the worldview she holds so it makes sense to write from that. She explains that although the ultimate ‘home’ maybe in a relationship with God, she is not necessarily expecting her readers to agree with her, but it makes up part of how she sees the world.

    In addition to her own story, Swinney explores the quest to belong which she has encountered while reading her Bible. She looks at one of the most well-known characters, David the Shepherd, Giant Killer, Refugee and King. As Jo relates his story in relation to her subject she brings new life to this story, and she definitely doesn’t gloss over his mistakes and pitfalls, but reminds us that David was very human in his thoughts and attitudes. She writes about his story in a very clear and, at times, amusing fashion, outlining the relative parts of the story. Needless to say she struggles to say much positive about David when looking at home in relation to marriage, but instead uses his bad example and restlessness to hold up a mirror to our own relationships.

    Each chapter looks at a different aspect of what people call home. The feeling that somewhere else is home, through to home in family, culture, country, community and many other things before getting to home in things that are closer to home, your actual property, your job and your past. With a gentle humour the author relates the aspects from her life, from her friends and others while gently nudging the reader to consider what aspects of life would make them feel at home. It’s not just any one thing, at least not in this life, there is a little discussion about the idea of Heaven as our home, but she rejects the notion that we cannot feel at home here on earth.

    In the back of this book there is a series of ten questions to get you thinking further about the notion of home if you have a book group or study group which chooses to read this together. I have quite enjoyed this trek through the idea of home, it’s not a question that I have really thought about until now. Although having shaken up my ‘home’ life somewhat this year it’s perhaps become more important to consider this idea. What makes home, home? This book may well be able to give you the gentle guidance that you need to begin to feel at home in yourself and your circumstances, or to know what to head towards so that you feel truly at home.

    Main Photo Credit: Jan Tinneberg via Unsplash

  • Music Review: Parables

    Digital Editor’s Note: I’m excited and proud to welcome Rob Allwright as our Guest Writer here at the Sorted Magazine website. Rob brings a wealth of experience and is one of the most respected Christian reviewers in the UK. The energy Rob devotes to supporting and encouraging Christian creatives is staggering. His review show One Man In The Middle is broadcast by Branch FM, Heartsong Live and Hope FM. And I’m just a teensy bit excited that he will soon be joining the wonderful peeps at the Manchester based broadcaster Konnect Radio!

    Rob writes: Those who have been immersed in the UK Independent Christian scene for a while might be familiar with the name Olwen Ringrose. In 2004 she recorded Live at the Chapel Royal, an album of the songs that she had been writing across the previous decade or more. She followed this in 2006 with an album called Daughter of the King and this release caught the attention of music lovers and critics alike and then in 2009 she released an EP called Hardly A Day. It’s been 13 years since her last release but in that time she has made time to raise her family, but also to lead worship in her local church. In 2018 she returned to writing and now she has rolled out this new recording called Parables which is a little bit different to much of what is on the market at the moment. You can find this album on streaming services and it features five tracks inspired by some of the parables of Jesus. What marks this out as properly different is that there is a version of this available through Bandcamp, which allows you to buy a version with ten tracks, the other five tracks are spoken word poems which set the scene for the song and parable that is to be visited next on the album.

    The first spoken word poem opens the album, setting the scene reminding us of the oral histories of culture and how Jesus came with new original stories about the Kingdom of Heaven described as Nuggets of Wisdom. These parables are not just stories, they point us to God. It is the Kingdom of Heaven that is the subject of the first track as Olwen skips through some of these well known illustrations from Jesus about what the Kingdom is like, a mustard seed, yeast, great treasure. There is no real desire here to give any theology, but more a reminder of the parables as pictures of something we won’t ever really understand. In the middle of this we are treated to an extended musical interlude that capitalises on the folk music aspects of this release.

    Coming Home is a nice introduction from the Son’s perspective in the parable known as The Prodigal Son. As the rather upbeat folk music intro starts for The Prodigal’s Return we find that the perspective has been flipped to the Father waiting and looking constantly for his Son to return. These familiar stories continue with one of the best known of all the parables, The Good Samaritan. Interestingly the spoken-word that accompanies this talks about tribes and sticking within our social, cultural or theological bubbles, and it very much sounds like our world today.

    The Two Sons is a simple introduction retelling the parable of the same name. The song Actions Speak Louder uses its piano and cello backing to emphasise that we need to really turn up. In this song there is a lovely bit of saxophone which interacts with the brushed drums and cello which is a pleasure to listen to. The album then moves onto it’s final parable of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the opening poem reminds us that God is “unimpressed” with empty noise. The last song is simply entitled The Pharisee and the Tax Collector and looks at the differences in the types of prayer as Jesus outlines in the story.

    After 13 years Olwen has something to say, and a lot of it is actually in the unsaid between the spoken word and the songs. As a project this is a little different, and I always like different, particularly when it is as well executed as this is here. I would say as a listener taking this project from beginning to end it was sparking thoughts about how we treat people, how we look at love and failure, as well as how we approach prayer and worship. While these parables are 2000 years old there are still fresh applications for our lives and the clever language used in both spoken word and song subconsciously brings those thoughts to the surface. 

    Olwen has a pleasant vocal and between her and the producer they know how to put together a moving track. Not all of these are the standard definition of folk music, there are elements of other styles sprinkled throughout. There is a brilliant smattering of different instruments through these songs, the piano leads on many of these but the addition of saxophones, cello and others into the mix really make this an album worth listening to. Olwen has come back with something new and different, we may have to make room for it in the market because it deserves some space. If you can, buy this directly from There Is Hope | Olwen Ringrose (bandcamp.com).

    Main Photo Credit: Courtesy of Olwen Ringrose

  • Review: Taming of a Villain

    Digital Editor’s Note: I’m excited and proud to welcome Rob Allwright as our Guest Writer here at the Sorted Magazine website. Rob brings a wealth of experience and is one of the most respected Christian reviewers in the UK. The energy Rob devotes to supporting and encouraging Christian creatives is staggering. His review show One Man In The Middle is broadcast by Branch FM, Heartsong Live and Hope FM. And I’m just a teensy bit excited that he will soon be joining the wonderful peeps at the Manchester based broadcaster Konnect Radio!

    Rob writes: As a young Christian, I loved to read inspirational stories and autobiographies like Run Baby Run and The Cross and the Switchblade and many others. Having matured, I now realise how encouraging it was to have strong Christian parents and a Church that taught me the Bible. Taming of a Villain by Allen Langham is a story of the remarkable change that happens when someone searches and finds the truth of Jesus through their brokenness.

    The story of Allen Langham is one of trouble from an early age. His Father and Mother were not married and his Dad left when he was just 18 months old. Life was tough and Allen was regularly disciplined to ‘toughen him up’ with a stick and then at just fourteen years old his Mum died of a cerebral haemorrhage. This is something that haunted Allen through much of his adult life. From this point on Allen struggled with anger and rage which he would use sometimes to stand up for women and sometimes to pick on those weaker than himself.

    Some things were going well for him and his natural sports talent were starting to show, initially in football but then this developed into a love and skill in Rugby League. This turned into a small job before he signed a contract with the Sheffield Eagles for £3000. While life seemed to be taking an upwards turn Allen found his comfort clubbing, fighting, selling and taking recreational drugs. It wasn’t long before his gangster life caught up with his professional life and at the age of 18, he was sent to prison for the first time for a few months for Actual Bodily Harm after attacking four police officers on a night out. This was the end of his time with the Eagles and the beginning of his descent into Heroin addiction and 15 years in and out of prison for escalating charges to do with violence.

    As with many of these stories, there is quite a bit of time spent describing what life was like. Some of these books can be guilty of making that past, and that life attractive and glamorous, that is not the case for this story. It is a very slippery slope that Allen gets onto and his life swirls out of control. At no point in reading this did I wish that I was living this lifestyle of drugs and violence, it seems to be told and shown that there was a lot of despair in his life. At times Allen does throw something about his life now into the mix that is relevant. He also signposts some of those things that were clear pointers towards what God was going to do with his life, long before it happened. Most times that Allen went to prison he finds himself gravitating towards the chaplaincy and reading and learning about different religious traditions, clearly, he was seeking for something to help him change.

    It is no secret that in a book like this there is an experience with God of some kind when someone reaches out with the message of hope. I don’t want to ruin this story by giving too much away. What I do like about this story is that Allen’s life didn’t suddenly become perfect straight away. For Allen, there was a sudden change, a change in the desires that he found within himself, but it didn’t change the situation that he had left himself in overnight. Suddenly though Allen was open to the love of Jesus, he lessened his need for other things to support him, but he still had to deal with his habits and even those habits that some would describe as good, such as his zeal in telling other people about Jesus, which got him into trouble with some people in the churches he had been attending.

    There were other things that also had to be resolved in his life. Some issues surrounding his childhood, his mother’s death, his family and the damaged relationships there, all these things needed to be dealt with and you can’t just say “I’ve changed” and expect everyone to see it and understand it straight away. As we get to the end of the book, we can see there is a growing maturity to his faith, as he has through the years dealt with the issues, and even in the writing of this book has discovered new things that had to be dealt with.


    This is an inspiring story which God is using, as Allen is given a platform to share it personally. It isn’t the most eloquent book, it feels like it is Allen himself talking to you about his life for much of it and that conveys his personality. I also noticed that there are some issues of typesetting which were a little odd for a book like this, with punctuation dropping down to the next line and even at one point the final line of a chapter being printed above the next chapter heading. All in all, this is a captivating story and for me, it shows that no one is too far gone to be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ, and sometimes, like the Prodigal Son, we have to get to our very lowest point before we see the Father’s overwhelming love and grace for us.

    Taming of a Villain by Allen Langham | Free Delivery at Eden

    Main Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lion Hudson