Reviewed by Philip Croft

This is the first album by Coventry-born and Coventry-based Michelle who teaches vocals and songwriting at a local academy. As you may expect with this sort of background the vocals are excellent though strangely for someone doing songwriting courses only half of the tracks on the album are written by Michelle, the other half being made up of some familiar and well known hymns such as "Abide With Me" and "All Hail The Power Of Jesus Name". In places the vocals sound very similar to possibly my favourite Christian singer Joanne Hogg. Sadly, though, not all the songs do justice to the voice particularly during the first part of the CD which includes some more poppy songs that frankly don't really work. By the later part though there are some real gems which strip the sound down to little more than piano and vocal – self-penned "Like A Mighty Flame" being the standout track. Overall, for a first album this is very good and with the experience that Michelle has no doubt gained from its recording we can look forward to even better in the future.

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.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.