Two opposing sets of alarm bells go off when reading about this, the sole, long-forgotten album by singer-songwriter Bob Desper. Desper was blinded in his youth and in 1974 when in his early 20s, he recorded this acoustic-guitar-and-vocals album, which was put out by the Portland-based Christian record label Rose City Sound. First alarm; could New Sounds be one of those lost masterpiece albums? Music history is littered with once-forgotten but great albums made by committed, intense artists who happened to make zero impression on the zeitgeist at the time, like Rodriguez or Nick Drake. Alarm number two, and much less excitingly, the kind of artists whose work never makes it beyond the specialized world of religious labels tend to be those for whom the message is more important than the music. These artists generally have a ready-made and finite audience; people who buy religious music. Probably, back in the early 70s, the top A&R people from Capitol and Warners werent looking beyond Laurel Canyon to Rose City Records and its peers to find the stars of tomorrow - that "mawkish Christian music" alarm is a hard one to ignore. In fact, both alerts are valid; while not exactly a masterpiece, New Sounds is a fascinating, unique and soulful album, far more individualistic and accomplished than one might expect. At the same time, its a collection of doomy, cautionary dirges and those without faith, or with different kinds of faith, will likely find its gently hectoring tone easiest to digest in small doses. The plus side of music based in sincere faith, be it Christianity, Jainism, Satanism - whatever - is that it has its own authenticity; in theory it doesnt really matter if the listener shares that faith, any more than it matters if you buy into the doctrines of Louis Farrakhan when you listen to It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back or, on a lighter level, if you like to surf or drive hot rods while listening to the early Beach Boys. The thing is that the singer is channeling their own passion into the music rather than just playing a song, and thats all one can really ask for; not that that necessarily makes for good music, of course.