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Orange sky

Beating Time

ORANGE SKY (CD)
By Jayne Lewis
Authentic Music

'... 300 words by Sept. 1st. Thanks. JEB' read the compliment slip, and at once I began to regret ever having suggested myself as a reviewer to Mr. Benton. What was I thinking of?

Perhaps I'd just seen this as a cheap way to extend my CD collection? But in that moment of weakness I hadn't considered that I might not like everything I was asked to review. How would I handle that?

After all, it's not really on to say 'the best thing about this album is that I didn't waste my own money on it', is it?

According to www.jaynelewis.com, 'Orange Sky is a collection of contemporary worship songs and songs of personal testimony and praise. The album contains a variety of styles including up-tempo guitar songs and more mellow piano ballads. The title track "Orange Sky" is an up-tempo "feel good" song, which should have you singing along in no time!'

I can confirm that goods are as described, yet after two weeks of repeated listening I'm still not singing along.

Jayne Lewis may be familiar to Keswick and Word Alive audiences, but Orange Sky is her debut album. I expected much from a Christopher Norton production, yet neither the technical excellence of his Nashville studio nor the superb quality of Lewis's voice were enough to make me feel good about this work. It's all rather samey really, with heaps of musical and lyrical cliches.

The lyrics bother me the most. I'm looking for something to challenge and teach me. The song 'You are' starts out as a very promising and quite sweet paraphrase of Psalm 139.

However, the third verse ends rather raggedly with 'You died for me, so I could be complete and know that you are my God'. That's hardly good enough, is it?

And there is more than a hint of a gospel of self-fulfilment elsewhere. 'Fragile dreams' seems to be a song about the dream of making a debut album - 'You can be whatever He meant you to be and do whatever He say's [sic] you can do, Don't settle for mediocrity, don't sell out on your dreams ... and He will do immeasurably more than all you could ask or imagine'.

In a word: mediocre.
PGDH