Search - Charlie Peacock :: LOVE LIFE

Tam G.
Reviewed on 6/6/2011...

In some ways the music is dated (After Loving You and the heavy use of synthesizer), but looking back over 20 years its amazing how much of this is still relevant and fun to listen to. For a Christian album the lyrics are almost scathingly honest. I think we forget how surprising it was in '92 to have songs connecting sex and marriage problems with spiritual introspection and forgiveness. The title Love Life is very apt. Peacock takes on not just traditional spiritual issues but connects them to every day relationships.

Like much of Peacock's work, the album defies easy categorization. There's free-form piano jazz, there's gospel, there's mariachi style trumpet, there's funky grooves, reggae-like choruses, and an African choir. Songs alternate between dance beats and singer-songwriter crooning. Peacock has always had a fascination with a wide variety of styles and this album showcases that.

Highly recommended. If you can get a copy, do so. This album is completely deserving of its place on CCM's Best 500 Christian Albums of All Time.

Why can't Christian labels keep classics like this in print?

David Lerner | Columbia, MD USA | 02/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Charlie Peacock is an accomplished musician/producer/songwriter, and his 1990 release "Love Life" is a classic in Christian music. So why isn't it in print?



The title of the album reveals the theme behind the lyrics: each song takes a look at the various dimensions of a life lived with love as the dominating guide. The songs take on the spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical aspects of living life through the eyes of love.



Stylistically, Peacock runs all over the place. "After Lovin' You" and "What's It Like In Your World" start off the album with some r&b-tinged pop. "Forgiveness" has a gospel foundation to the music, while "Personal Revolution" takes gospel towards a more straight-ahead, though mellower, pop feel. "Another Woman In Tears" is one of the strongest cuts on the album, with Charlie veering into a more overtly jazz feel. "In the Light" and "I Would Go Crazy" are more up-tempo songs with a dance vibe, the former being a far superior version than the version that DC Talk recorded for their Jesus Freak album a few years later. "There Was Love" and "When I Stand With You" are, for lack of a better term, particularly Peacock-esque - artsy songs that defy any particular definition in terms of genre.



The song that deserves the most attention and, in my humble opinion, the most applause on this album is the next to last track, "Kiss Me Like a Woman." Peacock wrote this song as a celebration of the sexual relationship of he and his wife. The backlash he received from the conservative Christian majority over the "controversial" song was completely unfounded (they're MARRIED, for crying out loud), although it did not necessarily come as a surprise. Many Christian stores refused to carry the album, or would only carry it behind the cash registers, which really did a lot of harm to the sales of the album.



This album holds up well, even 15 years after its initial release. I have been an admirer of Charlie's music and writing since the days of his "Lie Down in the Grass" release, but I still find Love Life to be his strongest album from top to bottom. It is a crime that Sparrow Records allowed this classic release to be taken out of print. It is well worth tracking a copy down..."

Ahead of it's Time

Christine | Williamsport, PA USA | 10/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Peacock was DEEPLY brutally honest, vulnerable and "real" long before it was in fashion. This album is incredible, the music is ... well timeless sounds cliche, but TIMELESS and the lyrics are deep and intense.



The song Forgiveness is so wildly good, listening to it is an "activity." I can't do anything else at the same time. It's one of those songs that you feel like running around and playing for everyone just so they feel it.



What a brilliant musician - what a "real" Christian - what a testimony to what the Holy Spirit can do with a mere man."