Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Central African gospel music? Hmmmm. got to confess that the concept is more interesting than the execution. Obviously recorded on a low budget, these are worship songs mainly in English and the results are not too pleasant on the ear. There are a couple of problems here. Firstly Gladys is not blessed with a voice that you want to listen to for a whole album's worth of songs. On "Its Jesus You seek" she sings "I walked the hills trying to find a melody" and clearly she didn't manage it! Secondly, the cheap arrangements here are hampered by tinny drum machines and horrible keyboard sounds. There are three public domain hymns here, "It Is Well" and "How Great Thou Art" bring the album to a merciful close whilst earlier on, there is the "House Of the Rising Sun" version of "Amazing Grace". The rest of the tunes are original songs written by Gladys and her pastor Chola Tumelo who should know better than to take Ralph McTell's "Streets Of London" and add cheesy Christian lyrics and then pass the song off as their own. Mr McTell's lawyers might be inclined to legal action but on hearing the album, the royalties aren't really going to be worth making a fuss about.

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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