Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Josie Falbo with Sweetening


The Lord Looks Into Your Heart” (Toddlin’ Town) This gospel EP is unique in a genre where one expects conformity. Falbo sings with a voice that is both heavenly and extraterrestrial, sounding something like an enchanting futuristic vibrato singer on a Star Trek episode. But what is best about this work is the songwriting which often has Falbo rushing syllables to make the wordy, smart lyrics (many borrowed from scripture) fit, and has the kind of delivery and structure that one finds in song-poems and amateur songwriting. This is not an insult: it makes the faith expressed here feel more genuine and not as manipulative as a glossy, polished product. The production (by Chicago recording vet Larry Nestor) is anything but primitive, yet despite slick production this record, especially the jaunty, should-be hit “2000 Years” feels like the work of sincere, original outsiders…in a great way.

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