This I Know

Album Review

If this impressive recording is any indication, Eartha Moore stands poised to become a powerful presence on the modern gospel scene. Aside from a soulful, emotional voice that always seems about to really bust loose, she produces, plays most of the instruments, and wrote every tune. Mid-tempo spirituals like "Vision" and "Ain't Nothin' Wrong" reflect the fact that her greatest musical gift is texturing her powerful vocals with silky backing vocal textures that make many tracks sound like outtakes from Take 6. The one drawback is her overreliance on drum machine and synthesized sounds in lieu of live instruments; she may have more luck getting the Kirk Franklin crowd this way, but a more intimate approach on a few tunes would offer a much-needed balance. At 14 songs, the disc offers a lot of wonderful Biblically sound messages, yet at times the unvaried tempos lead some of the songs to run together and she has trouble finding strong hooks to latch onto. Taken individually, songs like "Never Change" and "All That Really Matters" make strong statements, but they tend to blend played side by side. Still, it's hard to find fault with such a powerful voice and a heart in the right place. And anyone who claims to have a "love jones" for Jesus is just bound to make faith palatable to even the harshest hip-hop skeptic.