Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

I've lost count of all the gospel divas that these old ears have heard in the last 40 years, and there's an abundance of righteous sistas who want to follow in the footsteps of Mahalia Jackson, Tramaine Hawkins, CeCe Winans and their ilk. Dawne White makes a lot of the right noises, but not enough to be totally convincing. This 13-track CD struggles to make up its mind as to whether it's traditional style gospel or something altogether more urban; on the first couple of tracks, it's straight ahead stuff, although Dawne seems to be straining to deliver on one or two songs that appear to be set in too high a key. Some of the other songs are very inspirational and a tad dull, and on one there's a bizarre intro straight out of a radical hip-hop album that stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. Taken as a whole, whilst it has its moments, there aren't enough fireworks to go with the rather stereotypically ecstatic sleeve photos. Disappointing.

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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