Jaci Velasquez's gold-selling debut album, Heavenly Place, was a pleasant collection of songs that, for the most part, alternated between energetic pop numbers and polished ballads. While her new self-titled release retains the spiritually direct lyrical approach of the debut, it does take a few strides towards being a bit more musically diverse.
The more eclectic musical approach on the new album, though, ends up being a hit-and-miss proposition. The sweeping falsettos on the lovely "You" give it an almost alternative sensibility that works well with the song's start-stop musical structure and vivid imagery. And the energetic "Child Of Mine" sounds much like the classic rock anthems of the '70s and '80s, being built around an infectious, often-repeated power chord progression. But, in other places on the album, cloyingly sentimental lyrics give "Look What Love Has Done" an almost fairy tale quality that is hard to relate to, while the breathy, over-the-top vocal delivery on the torch number, "Little Voice Inside," comes across as more affected than genuine. And songs like "Speak For Me" and "Glory," while nicely executed, lack the sheer energy that made so much of the first album so memorable.
Nonetheless, whatever new musical territory Velasquez may have explored on the new release, her forté is still straight-ahead pop numbers like those on her debut. On "God So Loved," Velasquez sits back in the soft pop groove, taking her vocals from a slight whisper on the verses to a near shout on the chorus without losing any of her voice's distinctive timbre. And her soothing, relaxed vocal style is a perfect complement to the intricate and sublime guitar work on the Wayne Kirkpatrick penned "Sweet Surrender;" not to mention her buoyant delivery on "Made My World," whose sunny theme and winsome "sha-la-la-la" background vocals mix with sludgy, distorted guitars for a kind of "Nirvana meets the Partridge Family" effect that is both contagious and fun.
All said and done, it would be safe to say that the stylistic variety of the new release, while admirable, is more or less offset by material that is, as a whole, weaker than that on the debut. Still, the best tracks from the new album are equal to, and oftentimes better than, even the strongest material from the first release. Of course, at only 18 years old, Velasquez should have a fair amount of time to master other genres of music besides pop, if she so desires. And in light of her copious vocal talent and youthful enthusiasm, such a scenario doesn't seem unlikely at all.
Other coverage for this album
Exit Zine 1999Reviewed by James M. BranumOne of the hardest things for an artist to do is to follow his or her own success. Jaci's new self-titled album is not bad. But compared to her first album, Heavenly Place, it is just not as good as I had expected. Jaci's first album showed so much promise. While she only wrote one of the songs, you could hear in her powerful singing that she believed every word of all of the songs. Her singing…The Phantom Tollbooth 1998Reviewed by Janet FriesenTwo years ago Jaci Velasquez burst onto the Christian music scene. Her debut CD, A Heavenly Place, yielded five number-one songs on the Adult Contemporary charts and earned her the 1997 Dove Award for Best New Artist of the year. It also made her the best-selling solo debut artist in the history of Christian music--all this at only sixteen years of age! Velasquez is back with her second project,…Similar sounding releases
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