Roads to Rome, one of the newest bands from Franklin, TN, come into the scene with their debut album, Love Rain Down. Lead singer, Michael Musick, uses his talent with both voice and songwriting to create this CD, which contains a great use of real life situations turned into song. Musick is known for his skill in creating a very visual song, and it shows in Love Rain Down.

The album begins with "Dying to Know You," a song resembling Delirious' sound. Musick uses his passionate voice to explain that there is "nothing I won't do" to get to know Jesus on a deeper level.

The first single on the album comes in at track two. "Alive in Me" begins with a beautiful piano intro. The slower tempo song describes the ultimate power of Jesus taking over one's body, with the chorus revealing "I can feel it in my heart. I can feel it in my mind. I can feel it in my body... I can feel it in my heart. I can feel it all the time. I can feel it in my body. Alive in me."

Musick brings the listeners to his high school days in "Beauty Queen." Musick has said in an interview that he was saved through a girl who he thought was pretty. "She wound up sharing the gospel with me and that is how I wound up becoming a Christian," he said. One of the more rock songs on the album, the lyrics, from a male perspective, paint a picture of a woman who has recently become a Christian, changed from her past high school stature. Describing her new inner beauty through Christ, Musick sings, "She's a real beauty queen, a diamond in the sky. A real beauty queen, loving everything she sees." The song ends with the statement, "I wish I was her beauty king." Musick explains in the interview, "Pretty much what he is saying is, 'I want that beauty in me.'"

The title track is a song of desperation for love to rain down on this stressed out world. Musick's higher voice pops out on this song, with the instruments at low volume in the background. "Everybody has a point where they can't take it anymore," the song describes. The background vocals towards the end of the song help give Love Rain Down a great ending.

One of my favorites on the album is "Turn it All Around." The talent Musick is known for is strong in this song. He pans out very real situations where the subject can become dizzy within the world, including a waitress constantly working over time. The song explains that this isn't the life she planned, and "Earth is spinning, feet on the ground. Sky is upside down. Turn it all around." The end gives encouragement that a "little girl can change the world, and turn it all around."

Commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr., Roads to Rome plays "Long Road to Memphis." The strength that King, Jr. had when the world seemed against him provided the central theme of the song, describing that though it's a long road when you fight without a gun, it's a road that "we will overcome."

Other songs on the album give a nice variety of genres, including a bit of Musick's southern background in "Pray For You" and "Brother Sun (The Kingdom Song)." If you are appreciative of all kinds of music, Roads to Rome's Love Rain Down is for you. It's a great album you can put in and relax to, and maybe even be challenged at the same time.