OUT OF EDEN keep bouncing back with brilliant albums. Tony Cummings reports.

Out Of Eden

As the R&B gospel clique know full well, Out Of Eden deserve to be up there with the Destiny's Childs, selling millions and recognised internationally as world class divas. But since their emergence in 1994, the Kimmey sisters - Lisa, Andrea and Danielle - have always preferred songs about God and holiness rather than songs of Lurve and bedroom romps, and have remained beloved by the cognoscente but largely unknown in the mainstream. Maybe that will change with their fourth album, This Is Your Life', which reflects the R&B hip hop groove of the R&B charts ala Mary J Blige and Eve and the soulful vibrancy of the modern neo-soul divas like Angie Stone and Alicia Keys while still retaining Out Of Eden's signature goose-bump inducing harmonies. As all the reviewers have concurred, This Is Your Life' is a brilliant album.

"The album is right in the pulse without trying to imitate," said Lisa, the eldest of the young siblings and coincidentally the group's supervising producer and lead songwriter. "It's where the world is right now musically, socially and spiritually. We're giving them a hot track with a real song."

The group were determined that with their new album Out Of Eden should speak directly to today's contemporary women. "We met with a lot of women's groups," Lisa told Billboard magazine. "We met with Mercy Ministries, different youth pastors and different girls' groups on the road. We asked them what they would like to hear an album about. We had those conversations with girls that came from functional families and those that came from completely dysfunctional families and found that a lot of the stories were the same. A lot of what they wanted to hear was the same. From that list we went and wrote this album."

When she sings songs from the new record, does she see the faces that inspired them? "Definitely. There's a song called 'Different Now' and I totally remember a girl who said, 'How do I explain to my friends now that I've become a Christian and they haven't, how do I explain that I'm different and God has something in my life?' That was one of the topics that we wrote about. Then there's a song called 'I'm The One'. One of the young ladies in the same group, one of her questions was, 'How do I know when God has forgiven me? How do I know that I'm different, God is changing me and he has forgiven me and still loves me?'"

Kimmey says the goal with this record was to make music that was more than simply entertaining. "We wanted to be relevant, because there's so many times when we write a song and it's a nice song, but it doesn't really touch anybody or mean anything."

Despite being a group who've sometimes been too defiantly hip to appeal to gospel traditionalists and too funkily R&B to connect with America's embarrassingly racist CCM radio stations, the trio, thanks to skilful marketing by Gotee Records, have found a loyal fanbase, have appeared in videos on MTV and even had a song featured on the Dr Doolittle movie soundtrack. The group, originally from Virginia, moved to Nashville in 1990 and in 1993 met up with dc Talk who were so enamoured with the singing sisters that they became the first group signed to the new Gotee Records. They have been nominated for seven Dove Awards, had the longest running number one Christian music video, "Looking For Love", and their past releases, 'Lovin' The Day', 'No Turning Back' and 'More Than You Know', have between them sold over one million records.

"We're not just a pop group," Lisa told Urban magazine. "Listen to our albums. While our singles may have been more Top 40, from record one our albums have consisted of songs that embrace rap, soul and funk alike. We were doing hip hop way before it was accepted in many gospel circles. I think God has and is using us to open people's minds, and there is a shift to good music rather than black or white music that is taking place."
"We pay close attention to social issues and are active in inner city ministry and always have been," said Andrea. "That is something that has always been important to us." Danielle added, "But we were raised in a multi-cultural environment and our music reflects our background."