Smoke & Mirrors

It's been a long time coming but the new Lifehouse CD Smoke & Mirrors was worth the wait.

The fifth album by the under-rated Americans, best known for their debut hit Hanging By A Moment, is another testament to Jason Wade's ability as a songwriter.

(As most people will be aware, I recently wrote about how crap music is these days so this is a welcome change from the trend).

Just like the previous album Who We Are this one takes a couple of songs to really hit its straps with Had Enough, the Chris Daughtry collaboration the first highlight.

The single release Halfway Gone isn't the greatest Lifehouse song out there but it has had this knack of sticking in my head lately.

The supreme moment on the album comes in the special song From Where You Are, released in the US as part of a safe driving campaign. It's a touching song about the time 'erased' when you lose someone through a road accident.

It deserved to be a massive hit.

The title track Smoke & Mirrors is a real grower. I like the analogy about a relationship once all the illusions are gone (the 'smoke and mirrors').

There's one song that is on the deluxe version of the album but because that wasn't available I downloaded it. The song is called Crash And Burn and it shouldn't be confused with the Savage Garden classic.

The Savage Garden song was an ode to friendship, Wade's song covers the topic from a different perspective. He sings about the comfort of knowing he has support.

Lifehouse don't disappoint despite the fact they rarely trouble the charts. And this is the fifth time they have released a listenable album and importantly one that grows with you.

It's at least as good as their fourth and better than their second album and the fact I added 10 songs from this one onto my ipod shows how much it appealed on first listen.