Zach & Sarah

There are three things that strike you immediately when you listen to Ready To Fly from the indie husband/wife team of Zach and Sarah Blickens: 1) The pristine production values; 2) the easy way the couple’s tag-team vocals play hide ‘n’ seek with each other; 3) the relentlessly catchy acoustic, folk-rock melodies that demand you tap your foot in time. But is only after repeated listenings that the true cream of this project rises to the surface.

And that cream is in the depth of the lyrical content. Some songwriters lay it on an inch deep and a mile wide. The Blickens opt for drilling a mile deep and maybe a few feet wide. I suppose that should come as no surprise. The couple serves under the pastoral leadership of contemporary theologian, Francis Frangipane, whose way with words is nothing short of astounding.

Still, I find myself scratching my head over this project. The lyrics are not spectacularly novel or new. “Jesus I give my heart/ I’m falling down at your feet/ I’m living to walk with you/ For the rest of my life,” they sing in “Surrender.” Nothing new. Nothing I haven’t heard a couple of million times before by a couple of hundred other worship bands. But there is just something about it that is compelling; like when you read that same verse in the Bible for the fiftieth time, but suddenly it jumps out at you with fresh new meaning.

Ready To Fly is going to be in my CD player for a while. There is some deep stuff here, no doubt about it. But I’ve got a feeling there is a whole lot more depth to this project than I suspect.

- BuddyHollywood.com