Reviewed by James Tweed

With 'Orphans And Angels' the quirky yet vulnerable Texan singer has made her best and most consistent album yet. Julie's third, its strengths are many, not least the decision begun on her previous album 'He Walks Through Walls' to put good songs over her endearing zaniness that was almost the undoing of her exceptional 1990 debut 'Meet...'. An album about loss -of friends, namely singer Mark Heard, and innocence in a world that wants to drag you down to its level - there is a feeling of melancholia that paradoxically pervades such an enjoyable recording. The presence of fellow roots singers Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin and Valerie Carter adds to the feeling, especially on the haunting tribute to Mark Heard, "All My Tears (Be Washed Away)" (a duet with Emmylou) and "Treasure Of The Broken Land", which featured on his posthumous album 'Satellite Sky' last year. The album is full of hard-won observation for, as Julie sings on "Angels Dance", "When a child that's been world-weary reaches out his hands, God will go the distance to meet him with a smile so wide it'll make the angels dance." Knowing the song was co-written by multiple sclerosis sufferer and all-round heroine Victoria Williams gives the words extra poignancy. But in the States attention has been drawn to "SOS (Sick Of Sex)", a track left off 1991's 'He Walks Through Walls' at the insistence of her record company and which the self-same company is now using to promote this one. In it Julie condemns Hollywood and Madison Avenue for using sex to sell anything but love. Perhaps she ought to write another about the hypocrisy of Christian record companies.

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