Jamie Grace
‘91
Independent, 2017
It’s easy to imagine that catching the ear of Michael Bublé and going viral for being called on stage by none other than Adele — yes, that Adele — could go to the head of a rising contemporary Christian music pop star. But recent close encounters with mainstream superstars haven’t watered down Jamie Grace’s gospel message.
Even songs on “‘91” (the year she was born) about, say, club scene romance (“Party Like a Princess”), draw on biblical truths: “When I walked into the party / Everybody just stopped / Even the DJ wasn’t ready / To see me without a boy who isn’t ready / To be a king / So tell me why would I be chasing him / To be his queen? / Don’t you know who my Daddy is? / Don’t you know what my Daddy did? / Don’t you know who my Daddy is? / He paid it all / I’m the belle of this ball / So I’m gonna / Party like a princess.”
The record is the first independent effort for the 2012 Dove Awards New Artist of the Year since leaving Gotee Records in 2016 — Grace was discovered on YouTube by Gotee head TobyMac — and there isn’t a bad track on it.
They’re laid back. They’re catchy.
The closest thing to a complaint you could get would be to say that a few may be derivative; echoes of Miley Cyrus and maybe even a little Rihanna are aplenty (and guess what year Taylor Swift, whose last album is titled “1989,” was born). That doesn’t stop them from sounding good. And hey, Ecclesiastes 1:9 is a biblical truth, too.
____________________
Meet the reviewer
Jeremy Henderson reviews music for The Alabama Baptist. He is co-host of Rich and Jeremy in the Mornings on Wings 94.3 FM, editor of The War Eagle Reader.
Share with others: