|
 |
 |
 |
| <
FRONT PAGE < WREVIEWS |
|
|
|||
 |
|
|
Albertine Brooke Fraser
Brooke is big news down under, and has recently become a key worship leader in the Hillsongs stable. Hopefully, her influence will drain some of the honey-dripped gunk from their style of congregational sing-alongs. Very nearly track-by-track Anyway, Fraser's second album reflects a maturing performance, and several stand-out songs. Deciphering Me speaks of God’s all-knowing ability to get to the heart of a person, but superbly achieves this without jargon or cliché (some might say ‘without reference to biblical phrases’, which may be a valid criticism if this song is at the heart of a church service, but then it isn’t, so it isn’t. Love where is your fire? makes its point with dramatic force when it reaches the line ‘Some tell me to be moderate but lukewarm will never do/ Cause I, I want to blaze with you.’ Brooke is expressing the need to be on fire rather than simply smoldering, which she manages already. But on the other hand, Love is Waiting sets out her integrity as she waits for the right time to give love – eager to see the day arrive (which did arrive on March 17th 2008, when she married another Hillsongs musician) – but determined to be honest and righteous and to live out the reality that true love waits. Weak It turns a bit Bono for the title track, with Edge-like guitar echoes, and angst-ridden responsibility-taking for the disasters in Rwanda – her trip there clearly affected her, but somehow bypassed me. Sorry. And it gets a bit over-philosophtical with the CS Lewis Song: ‘Am I lost or just less found? On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?’ But the music isn’t sufficiently gripping to let her get away with this sort of rehashed ‘I read a book once’ homage. Major Highlight Oh dear, I’m getting slightly unfriendly… and then she goes and makes it all forgiven with the fabulous Faithful, a haunting cry for the presence of God – and yes, this album is reckoned to be a crossover piece! Look at this: ‘When I can't feel you, I have learned to reach out just the same/When I can't hear you, I know you still hear every word I pray/And I want you more than I want to live another day/And as I wait for you maybe I'm made more faithful.’ It’s so well-expressed, without corn or dance-moves, and I found this song connected with me more than many on many worship albums. And still God doesn’t get a mention, but somehow it doesn’t matter. If an unbeliever took this song to be about a lover who is out of town or something, they might accept most of the lyric, although any mere person will fail to provide the sense of security and certainty for which Brooke yearns. ‘We are Hosea’s wife/We are squandering this life/Using people like ladders and words like knives.’ It’s a direct and unmistakeable reference to the Bible! Hoorah! If you don’t know, you can guess that the woman in question was less than purposeful; but to put it as poetically as this is so splendid. Brilliant: Best Track Quiet guitar and close microphone recording technique add an intimacy to The Thief, a gentle, moving love song in 3 / 4, which is probably one of those which applies equally to husband and Saviour. (Is it okay to sing to Jesus ‘you send me to sleep?’ It’s a close call, but she means it in terms of security and comfortableness.) The whole piece is completed with the breathtaking explanation of the title of the track ‘You’re breaking into my heart... and I'm letting you.’ What a superb description of willing co-operation, allowing Christ to come like a thief in the night and do us good!
Great finish Instead, they’ve trumped even the best of those ideas by finishing with one of the strongest songs on the album. It’s a powerful rendering of If to Distant Lands I Scatter, which sounds to me like one of those 19th Century hymns found in thick, thick red-covered tomes, occasionally used as missiles for preachers who have gone on too long. It reminds me of Stuart Townend’s great skill in writing songs which have an ancient and long-lived feel to them (for example See what a morning and especially How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, which completely fooled me the first few times I heard it and sang it loved it…) One of the frustrations of downloading the album from iTunes is that I have no access to liner notes or copyright information, so I can’t tell if this is a Fraser original, or, as I strongly suspect, a cover version. Either way, it’s a memorable way to conclude the album. [My correspondent from New Zealand assures me it gets an original Fraser-penned credit on the sleeve notes. Thanks Richard!] The song so nearly ends with an unresolved chord (which would be thrilling, as it once again allow the heart and mind to wonder and desire more…) but no, they go and slap a little more mildly cheesy strings at the end. Never mind. Friendly without being overtly sexy, intimate without being indulgent, and Godward without mentioning him. Not bad, eh?
|
|
This tender girl has a sensationally excellent voice in the lower register, reminding me slightly of Karen Carpenter. Her music is at times quirky and may take off in an unexpected direction, but then that’s rather refreshing too. It’s a sort of soft-rock with strong folk influences, but don’t expect any Hawaiian guitar or even jangling telecasters; there’s no spittoon in the studio when this girl’s in residence. It’s mostly acoustic guitar based, so when the tracks where the piano takes the lead break in, this provides a welcome new direction. This album is hugely inspirational. And she's not bad-looking, either, which is nice.
And then the song does one of those fantastic double-takes, where it returns to the first line and then lets it hang in the air. I really, really wish this had been the last track, to allow the silence which follows to be a lot longer, as your heart and mind wander freely through the depth of the phrase, the beauty of the voice, and the clarity of the deep, chocolate note. Or at least they could have made the gap longer (or made the last track a hidden one, with a long blank lead-in) or something.