STYLE: MOR / Soft Pop RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 169854-26840 LABEL: Independent FORMAT: CD Mini-album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Lins Honeyman
Leah Michelle Hamilton is a songwriter from California and, whilst she doesn't appear in person on this eight track mini album, has here employed a number of friends to deliver her songs in bold fashion. The front cover proudly points out that the project features "David Bowie's Piano Man" and veteran pianist Mike Garson's characteristic and sometimes very flowery playing - each track at some point involves several elaborate runs up and down the keyboard - is definitely the main feature. Fellow composer Austin Creek provides a melodramatic pseudo classical backdrop whilst a small team of vocalists complete the team including Legacy Five's Josh Cobb who features on "Garden Walk" - an augmented version of the C Austin Miles hymn "In The Garden" - and Marianne Haaland on the Psalms-inspired "The Throne". Elsewhere, Grant and Victoria Hansen perform some pretty complex vocal acrobatics on overwrought numbers like "Wandering Stranger" and "Heart Note" which, whilst technically impressive, may be a bit too musically self-indulgent for the everyday listener. Thematically, Hamilton's compositions point directly to God as the provider of miracles with the title track and the Cobb-sung "My Angel's Back" highlighting the fact that God's intervention can happen in everyday circumstances whilst the reflective instrumental "Reminiscing" closes this intriguing but largely inaccessible labour of love in contemplative fashion.
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