Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

I always feel a bit of a cad reviewing this sort of tape because whilst I don't want to discourage Ms Ducker from ever recording again, on the strength of this part of me hopes she won't! Her voice has an old fashioned MOR feel and in a lot of places she sings, frankly, flat (gulp!). As soon as I started playing this, my wife appeared from elsewhere in the house wanting lo know what I was listening to and how soon I would switch it off. It isn't simply Shirley's voice which grates, in places the instrumentation is the same. "Hooked", an attempt at a dance track, is a horrible selection of dated and unimaginative synth sounds and Shirley's voice over this is strangely incongruous. "Nevergreen Love" and "Since I Met You" are more MOR puppy which better suits her voice but there's still a lack of a catchy melody here. The closing track "Give It All Up" might normally be my advice to you Shirley because "Less Than Perfect' is an understatement. However, for the record. I note that you belong to a songwriter's workshop. Perhaps that's the place you need to work on structuring songs that have a more infectious melody than those here. I can't disagree with your heart desire to make music to communicate your faith but from the evidence here, in my opinion you need to return to the drawing board and think carefully before starling again.

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.

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