Insperations
Inspirations is a collection of tracks selected
by those Fame Academy tutors, Carrie and David Grant, all performed
in a gospel style by The New Inspirational Choir (which begs the questions
who were the Old Inspirational Choir, and where have they gone?),
together with a number of guest singers.
For the gospel novice, the most famous guests
will be Mica Paris, singing Let It Be and Many Rivers To Cross, and
soul legend Jocelyn Brown, singing opener I'll Take You There. Also
featured are Sharlene Hector and Keisha White, best known respectively
for advertising a certain cola drink and for supporting Lemar on tour,
together with the more obscure Bishop John Francis and Paris Campbell-Edwards.
Whilst the CD cover is overtly Christian, with
a pair of hands brought together in prayerful attitude and the "T"
of Inspirations being a cross, the choice of songs is intriguing to
say the least, given that the respective songwriters come from spiritual
backgrounds as varied as the blasphemous and mistaken Lennon and McCartney
(no, they weren't bigger than God); the tantrically-
sexualised Sting; the drugs-loving Bob Marley; the blinging, under-
age copulating (allegedly) R Kelly; and the Jewish-to-Christian convert
Bob Dylan. A truly eclectic mix, apparently drawn together solely
by the tenuous thread of what the Grants' find "inspirational".
That said, this is no bad listen. The singers,
both guest and choir, are all excellent, and songs like Fields Of
Gold, (Something Inside) So Strong, My Love Is Your Love, One Love
and Higher Love are all good songs which convert well to the gospel
style.
R Kelly already used gospel singers on I Believe
I Can Fly, so there is no great change here and those who liked the
original should find this cover acceptable. Indeed, one of the strengths
of the album is probably its lack of musical originality - the covers
are like high quality gospel karaoke, not "reworkings" in
the style of say Ryan Adams' Wonderwall.
Jocelyn Brown deserves special mention for her
belting rendition of I'll Take You There, a masterclass demonstration
of how soul and disco derive from the gospel roots of many of the
singers. The enthusiasm of the choir ("Sing it Miss Brown!")
and their spontaneous applause as she finishes is also infectious.
The low point is undoubtedly Knocking On Heaven's
Door. Anyone who has heard the original or the Guns 'N' Roses version
will find this the aural equivalent of a moped in the company of a
few Harleys. In other words, it's slightly lacking in the horsepower
department!
Some of the songs do have lyrics that speak
to the soul, notably (Something Inside) So Strong with: "The
higher you build your barriers, the taller I become... You can deny
me, you can decide to turn your face away... The more you refuse to
hear my voice, the louder I will sing. You hide behind walls of Jericho...
My light will shine..." M People's lyrics of, "What have
you done today, to make me feel proud," in Proud also guide the
way to a less selfish
way of living.
Overall, this is an
easy and enjoyable listen and one which is infinitely more "inspirational"
than those pan-pipe collections so beloved of daytime TV advertising.
