STYLE: R&B RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 15774-CAS1483 LABEL: Ten 103 FORMAT: 12 inch vinyl Album
Reviewed by James Attlee
The all-important second album for Lavine and Virgin have wheeled out the guns. Phil Collins has written a song, Phil Bailey and BeBe Winans sing backups, Rhett Laurence (Maria Carey produces most of the tracks. The Collins song 'All I Need" lets her make use of her lower register where she sounds well soulful. Lavine has an impressive range but too many stratospheric high notes can be a bit wearing. The strength of "All I Need" is that it's got a built-in solid chorus - a real pop song in fact. But you can see why Collins left it off the 'But Seriously' album. Lyrically, it's not really saying much - there's no lyrical hooks to go with the musical hooks. This is a weakness of the album as a whole. It's difficult for gospel trying to move into "inspirational" mould. When you take out the admittedly often banal lyrical content of traditional style gospel you're left with warmed-over-soul of the let's-all-join-hands-and-save-the-world variety. About half the tracks come into this category while the others are mostly about L-O-V-E (a generalised Cosmic Love that could emanate from Heaven, Boyfriend or Brothers and Sisters). The production throughout is safe and clean in a very Los Angeles kind of way. There's no doubt Lavine's got a voice that could melt vinyl given the right song to sing. But like a lot of great singers she feels under pressure to be a songwriter as well as an interpreter of other people's material. On the evidence of this album she hasn't yet got the chops to come up with an album's worth of songs. Sadly, not so much between two worlds as between two stools
The opinions expressed in this article are
not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed
views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may
not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a
later date.
Interested in reviewing music? Find out
more here.
Posted by Gerald Carter in Philadelphia, PA USA @ 05:52 on Dec 28 2007
I believe Lavine has a great voice, talent, and a lot of
potential. As you have stated above, I agree that the
lyrics should clearly reflect the gospel message of Christ,
and Praise and Worship to God. The instrumentation on her
albums has been exceptional. It would be nice if she came
out of retirement with producers, managers, and musicians
who are rooted and grounded in the Word of God to encourage
and support her.
I believe Lavine has a great voice, talent, and a lot of potential. As you have stated above, I agree that the lyrics should clearly reflect the gospel message of Christ, and Praise and Worship to God. The instrumentation on her albums has been exceptional. It would be nice if she came out of retirement with producers, managers, and musicians who are rooted and grounded in the Word of God to encourage and support her.