Elizabeth - Thy Kingdom Come: Journey To The Holy City

Tuesday 1st May 2001
Elizabeth - Thy Kingdom Come: Journey To The Holy City

STYLE: MOR / Soft Pop
RATING 5 5 5 5 5
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 3139-
LABEL: Independent
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

Elizabeth Gwee-Kong is Chinese, the possessor of a good soprano voice and most of this self-produced album is Elizabeth with piano and/or synth and small band accompaniment. The fare on offer is mainly old style Songs & Solos-type gospel music, although there are items by classical composer Gounod and Andrae Crouch included on the track list and Elizabeth's husband Arthur provides harmony vocals on a couple of tracks. To add some variety, Elizabeth occasionally sings in Mandarin Chinese and there's a fascinating spoken testimony piece in that tongue concerning her grandmother (fortunately for non-Mandarin speakers, the English translation is provided!). Production values are perfectly satisfactory and the only problem I have with the album is when Elizabeth attempts anything that's a step beyond her vocal powers. Her attempts at "The Holy City" and "Hiding In The Shadow Of The Rock" don't really work, she struggles to generate the necessary power and things are much better when it's simple and straightforward; her reading of "Take My Hand Precious Lord" is particularly good. Even so, the overall verdict can only be fair to middlin'.

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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