CRITICAL EAR

Album: The Sweet Bye and Bye

Artist: Julissa Neely

Label: (Available online)

Sound: Brooke Fraser, Emmylou Harris

Neely is the granddaughter of Pentecostal preachers, and was raised surrounded by the Jesus Movement in California, and her music wears both of these influences. Her new album begins with a deep, growing resonance and percussion that propels the listener like a car leaving the city and heading out into the wide, flat countryside. It's a distinctly southern American kind of sound, an intersection of soul, gospel, and country, with rusty piano and longing slide guitar, like the soundscape producer Daniel Lanois created for Emmylou Harris. The song Eternal Life is all summery shimmer, with a gospel singing reach to the melody without overdoing it. When the Trumpet Sounds is, again, nothing like apocalyptic, with its gentle, subtle watercolour backing, like much of the music on Brooke Fraser's albums or some of Amy Grant's classic Lead Me On, allowing space for Neely's velvety voice. Why Should I be Afraid is more sophisticated and urban, a smooth soul number with cooing backing vocals and purring organ, but also with a bouncing rhythm. This is a nice change from the sameness that creeps in around the middle of the album. But it's a lovely old-time sound, with real instruments, a voice that chews on the words, and songs that tend towards the simplicity and weight of hymns. Indeed, Go Sweetly, with mere piano and voice, has strong bones and a distinctive melody descended from American gospel classics — unsurprisingly, as her intention was to create an album of contemporary hymns.

http://www.julissaneely.com/

3/5

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Nick Mattiske