::ALBUM REVIEW::

This is something you don’t see everyday in the gospel market. A young fifteen year-older breaking out on a super music label like Geffen Records. Geffen’s current roster consists of Snoop Dogg, Ashlee Simpson, Mary J. Blige, Counting Crows, the Game, Keyshia Cole, Common and Nelly Furtado. But Spensha Baker is the first on the superstar label to break out with a full-length gospel project. It’s a move that baffles some since Baker is totally a new recruit in the music world - with no album releases under her belt. But it does fit the mold of Geffen’s profile of finding raw, fresh talent to help redefine their commanding presence in the music world since their acquisition into Universal Music Group (UMG) and its absorption of the MCA/DreamWorks labels by 2000. After impressing Geffen Records’ chairman Rob Barr at Star Search during its recent TV revival, Baker was since signed to the label and began her quest for immediate exposure by making appearances and performances at NBA all star games, the Bobby Jones Gospel show, TBN’s Praise the Lord and even singing before President Bush at the White House. On her debut project, Outloud!, Baker is surrounded by heavyweight producers like Warryn Campbell (Mary Mary) and Eric Dawkins while a load of upcoming producers join in on the twelve-track urban premiere.

The album does open up with the festive contemporary gospel-styled rendition of the Clark Sisters’ churchy ‘80s hit “Hallelujah.” The rearranged groove and vocals, patterned by Michael Bereal and Mary Mary, is tastefully done and gives the young singer much room to belt and show off her dazzling high notes. And even at the age of 15, Baker is well capable of handing a super charging song as this. While the song does loose a bit of its luster on the vamp - compared to the organic sporadic original - it still stand out as a heavy hitter for an album opener. But the album abruptly shifts away from the friendly church stuff and enters into urban territory with the Mary Mary-flavored “Love Somebody” and the hip-pop-inflected title cut. They are good tunes and are well presented - especially “OutLoud” with its smart string enhances - but easily conjures comparisons to the assembly line prototype that has already defined the Mary Mary sound. But “Teach Me” saves the day with its calm R&B instrumentation and innocent, crafty wordplay. When the chorus rings out (Teach me how to love/teach me how to trust/teach me how to give even when I don’t give enough) and its delightful rhyme timing, it may be a close revisit to Musiq’s successful hit with the same name, but it actually works as one of the album’s brightest of seminal ideas. “Thank You For Not Answering,” another heartfelt ballad, is also carefully penned and features Shep Crawford’s charming production. It offers a different take on prayer as Baker thanks God for not answering senseless and selfish requests. “Strong Tower” is probably the last of the big album highlights with its sweet string arrangements, worshipful lyrics and big background vocals resembling that of a choir.

Halfway into the disc there is a spiraling down of events that include an uninspired arrangement of the Sounds of Blackness pop hit “Optimistic” and “Praise” - sounding like the leftovers of Yolanda Adams’ “Victory.” While the big ballad “So Was I” - which Baker fully controls - delivers a hefty punch towards the end of the disc, the last four tracks are all slow and are often motionless. Maybe a jolting jam tucked in between the slow offerings would have offset a few yawns.

When listening to the album in its completion, it is pretty safe to interpret OutLoud as being a believable portrait of what teens could relate with. There’s no super-indulgence into lyrics that resemble seminary crash courses and those hymn-like presentations that bear lyrics like“I’ve made it through the storm and the valley.” It’s a definite representation of music that fits a young, cool girl like Spensha Baker. And while the praises goes to Baker for her amazing vocal deliveries and very impressive range especially at such a young age, she is destined to get better and stronger as the clock ticks. Surely in five more years, we will be looking at OutLoud as being an incubator experience during her musical metamorphosis. Yes, there are a few mistakes on board. That is what you expect when you have an album being controlled by a gang of producers only interested in producing one or two cuts but OutLoud! Is destined to become one of 2008's sleepers worth having.