Great for Soaking
If you like to "soak" in God's presence, this is a lovely album to put on for those quiet times. Every song is gentle and tender, so it's easy to quiet myself before the Lord when I put this CD on. I don't have kids, so I can't vouch for the songs as lullabies.
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A Worthy CD to "Sing Over Me"
Prime Cuts: You Are Good (Nicole Nordeman with Erin O'Donnell); Whole World in His Hands (Christy Nockels); How Great Is Our God (Bethany Dillon)
To bill this as a collection of lullabies constricts the target audience to nursing mothers and little children. However, such a marketing maneuver is domesticating as well as erroneous. Save for "Jesus Loves Me," the rest of these songs are by no means child-like berceuse whether lyrically or melodically. You will not find a dexterous "Jesus is My Super Hero" here; rather these are mostly worship songs with erudite theological messages sung with minimal concession to kids ("How Great is Our God," for instance, deals with the complex issue of worshipping the Trinity). So, what do we have here? "Sing Over Me" is an olio of familiar and newly written worship ballads newly recorded by the cream of today's contemporary Christian ladies such as Bethany Dillon, Erin O'Donnell, Christy Nockels of Watermark, Janna Long of Avalon and Nicole Nordeman. Nested in a perch of luscious sounding strings, the gentle strumming of guitars and soft tinkling of the musical ivories, the sonic purlieus of "Sing Over Me" is thoughtful, meditative and well suited for quiet worship by the porch in the wee hours of the morning.
Of the covers, the oldest song here is "Jesus Loves Me." It is always a challenge to rejuvenate such an old familiar chorus and though Christy Nockels gets the thumbs up for trying to sound soulful, the song is letdown by producer Ed Cash's pedantic arrangements. Much better is Bethany Dillon's take of Chris Tomlin's "How Great is Our God." Not since the magisterial "How Great Thou Art," has any modern chorus captured the worship of the Trinity in its sublime splendor as this superior hymn. Worthy of a lofty place in the sacred canon of Christian classics is the Kent Hughes-scribed "Here I Am to Worship." Nicole Nordeman, on the other hand, tackles Chris Tomlin's "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" reverently bringing out a cordial sincerity that is winsome. Since helmsman Ed Cash is also Chris Tomlin's sonic architect, it is no surprise that another Tomlin-song gets reprised by Nordeman. Though clocking at over four minutes, Nordeman only gets to sing the chorus of "We Fall Down," which needless to say, sounds tiresome.
As for the newly composed tracks, the Nordeman co-penned "You Are Good" finds reasons to worship God in the simple things is just gorgeous. While Bethany Dillon's "Unwavering" has a bluesy ring over its brooding melody with its hymn-like lyrics of praise to Jesus' sturdy love. Though touted as a duet, Janna Long and Christy Nockels blend into each other so well on "Lord You Have My Heart" that they have no chance to allow their individual talents to glint. This elucidates the major ailing of this project: many of these artists sound similar and producer Cash does not do much to encourage creativity in their deliveries. Further, why there is not the involvement of African-American women (such as Cece Winan or Nicole C. Mullen) to give this a different sonic texture is an enigma.
Overall, "Sing Over Me" is an anthology of songs that are God-centered and for the most parts serves as an excellent palette for personal worship. Never aureate but punctilious in its lyrically content, this project is thoughtful, ruminative and heartfelt. However, producer Ed Cash's sometimes unimaginative choice of material and uncreative execution of these paeans are the major drawbacks on what is otherwise a fervid record.
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