|
 |
|||
Madelyn Berry Madelyn Berry, a worship leader that uses a vocal mix and style reminiscent of Maurette Brown-Clark, summons her best call to worship on her sophomore project You Deserve All Praise. The Fairfield, Ala. native works alongside her husband Taron, who produced the entire musical affair, to set up yet another live worship experience using the familiar motif of records done by Vickie Yohe, Byron Cage and Martha Munizzi. There are no big surprises here, unfortunately. A remake of Chris Tomlin’s ever-redundant “How Great Is Our God” surfaces, but pleasantly beautified with a gorgeous intro. The contemporary worship standard “Days of Elijah” is also prepped with a facelift, but treated with the same spice of Donnie McClurkin’s take and a familiar lyric from Martha Munizzi’s “Because Of Who You Are” on the vamp. Factor in a half-modern, half-traditional “Oh How I Love Jesus” and a quasi-spiritual update of President Barack Obama’s campaign slogan on “Yes You Can” and you have a good, but predictable worship session to dig into. Where Berry shines the most is on the warm loopy title cut. Although entirely too long, the song sparkles with occasional cymbal accents and a delicious chorus set with big choral releases. There are a few other tracks to spotlight. “More,” a worship ballad akin to the effects of William Murphy’s emotional pleading, is nicely executed and dazzles with great harmonies and instrumentation.“Leaning,” an upbeat twist on the call-and-response congregational chorus dances with the big rhythm sparks of Byron Cage’s “Faithful to Believe.” Heavy on repetition, the song, if done with a good edit, may be a suitable choice for gospel radio playlists. “It Was Your Love,” after opening with a short sample of the hymnal favorite “Love Lifted Me,” charges into an original post-disco groove that will cause many a choir to sway to the uplifting sonics. The biggest complaint on You Deserve All Praise stumbles on the production of the disc. At times, the music is mixed at an intolerable high, her vocals are followed with a traceable echo and the drum blasts linger too long. Particularly on the opening tracks, it’s like a rock-gospel concert on steroids. The album also stands in need of mastering touches. Hopefully Berry and her support team will give the album, and future works, this kind of cosmetic attention. She’s bound to get further recording opportunities - best supported by a good pen for music and her warm touch on contemporary worship music. Hopefully she won’t make the same mistakes twice.
|
