Hope that Brooke Fraser's "Epilogue" is far away
Posted September 04, 2008
By Nathan,
There was a lot of hype surrounding one of Hillsong’s vocalists, Brooke Fraser sophomore album, Albertine. Fraser struck gold in New Zealand with her music and the reception of Albertine has been glowing. In New Zealand there is no distention between Christian and secular music which allows her to send her messages to a wider audience.
Albertine’s music is mainly adult contemporary with some praise and worship and alternative mixed in. Fraser’s voice is the first thing that stands out about her as she can easily carry a song on her own, but thankfully she doesn’t have too on the single “shadow feet” a piano driven light pop track which really shines. "Hosea's Wife" is an impressive ballad where the her voice gets rather emotional plus the chorus is impressive. While musically “deciphering me” starts slow the album progresses at the second time through the verse in the acoustic song and “hymn” is an inspiring piano driven ballad.
The instrumental “epilogue” is really a instrumental intermission though it does have some impressive electronic hints. Though Fraser’s vocals are very passionate and many of her ballads are smooth and attractive, some are too simple and even others are almost lullabies. “The thief” is almost entirely lifeless except for her vocals, while the light pop “love where is your fire” contains plenty of emotion the tunes changes little, “seeds”, which undergoes a long after a long intro, doesn’t challenge the listeners. The title track has a great finish but it really stalls at the start of the song.
Though Brooke Fraser may enjoy success on both sides of the musical scene it’s pretty clear by just looking at her song titles who she is singing fore, although there are a few more relationship songs than is preferable. “Hymn” and “faithful” are both God centered tracks but they tend to be at the weakest side of her song writing. Among the good lyrics are Fraser’s stance in when things go bad ‘When the world has fallen out from under me /I'll be found in you, still standing’, and her reluctance to be lukewarm (‘Some urge me to be temperate /Lukewarm will never do’) (“shadow feet” and “love where is your fire”). Intelligence is required to understand some of her messages like “C.S. Lewis song” and “Albertine” which is about a Rwandan orphan she met on a trip to Africa.
"Hosea's Wife" is depressing song because it depicts man’s depravity very well but it does offer hope on the ultimate question (‘We are more than just/Blood and emotions /Inklings and notions /Atoms on oceans’). It’s pleasant to see Fraser include God in her girl/guy songs in the song “deciphering me” (‘It's truth, it's truth that shows us /If we'll walk in His light’); what’s not so pleasant is the amount of time she spends on relationship songs. “the Thief” depicts a lover in a questionable light so it’s unclear whether her relenting to him is good or bad ‘You're breaking into my heart/and I’m letting you” and we could have done without “love is waiting” which states includes the incredibly insightful following: ‘Honey hold on if you can /The bets are getting surer now /That you're my man’.
Brooke Fraser does a sparkling job of carrying a song with her voice, and for the most part her music is very solid with a few dull exceptions. It’s similar with her lyrics where some are deep, some are simple but still focused on the Truth, and others could have been scratched. Albertine hits a bull’s eye for the adult contemporary crowd but it may be too boring musically to attract a huge following yet.
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