Note: I purchased this album after hearing it on Napster.

We can add this one to my collection of CD's that you wouldn't expect to be my style. There was a lot of hype when Nicole C. Mullen made her return to the Christian music scene midway through 2000, and I couldn't figure out what it was all about. I had heard her smash hit gospel ballad "Redeemer" a few times, and nothing jumped out at me. I knew that she had co-written Jaci Velasquez's "On My Knees" with her husband David Mullen, earning her a Dove Award for Song of the Year. I even owned an older album by said husband, that was in itself a strange blend of pop, rock, and soul. But I didn't really start to catch onto Nicole's style until a friend of mine, who had gotten hooked on "Redeemer", bought her CD and sat me down to listen to a few tracks. I soon realized there was more to Nicole than your average R&B artist, though there are still a few of her songs that I have to take with a grain of salt.

Shooby didn't really impress me at first - it seemed too insipidly happy. It's basically an upbeat testimony with a fun bass line meandering through it, and a chorus packed with nonsense syllables. Something about it got infectious after a while, especially after I realized that it was a bit odd to have twangy acoustic guitars accompanying what I like to think of as a "soul sistah" song. Soon, despite my grievance with the chorus, I began to look forward to popping this CD in, hearing the a capella "Ready for This" intro build to the song, and revving up what proved to be an intriguingly funky album. So give this one more than one chance.

Butterfly may not be an original title or concept on which to base a song (I can think of smash hits by both Mariah Carey and Seven Day Jesus that bear the same title), but this song is a good glimpse at the storytelling style that won me over. Here, it's accompanied by a perky disco beat as Nicole tells us about what it was like to grow up and finally tell her mother one day that it was time for her to spread her wings and go out into the world. She then turns that around, wondering what it will be like when her own daughter (who is seven or so by now, if I can remember correctly) becomes an adult and ventures out on her own. It's a fun track, and it will probably catch the attention of several wistful parents (which reminds me of another song with "Butterfly" in its title, but I won't go there).

Farewell is more of a ballad, but it's got some clean, clear guitars and a simple programmed beat instead of the heavy bass and weighty programming of your typical "bump and grind" R&B song. The song deals with sadness - it's a personal reminder for Nicole that there is no reason for her to be down. It borders on being trite, but for the most part, it's an emotionally fulfilling song. Watch out for the little "Party Over Here" interlude at the end of this track; it's rather obnoxious. I half-expect someone to say, "You go, girl!" or something in the middle of it.

Granny's Angel is another clever story song, built on a bluesy guitar riff from Nicole (that's right, she plays her own electric guitar), and incorporating an eerie harmonica into the mix just to give it that down-home feeling. Ironically, it deals with the lives of certain individuals living in the city who apparently aren't right with God, but both of them have a diligently praying grandmother who is constantly petitioning God to keep them out of trouble. Nicole meanders effortlessly between singing and talking in this song, and even though the whole "rapper girl attitude" is apparent in her voice, she's not trying to act tough and show off like some of her secular counterparts. She really lets loose with her voice and just has fun on this track; it always puts a smile on my face, even if I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the theology behind it.

Family Tree is basically a spoken word track over a slow groove. It's an interesting story about Nicole's ethnic origins (which are pretty diverse!), but she sounds a little bit too much like Erykah Badu on this one (and Erykah really gets on my nerves). You can definitely tell that race is a huge issue to Nicole, since she is married to a white man and they have a biracial daughter, and I appreciate her being so bold about it all, but on this track, it's a little overdone.

Blowin' Kisses gets a great upbeat groove going, complete with some vintage wah-wah guitar. It's Nicole's interpretation of Jesus' statement "What you do to the least of these, you do to me." She retells a story of running into a homeless woman and her daughter, and buying them dinner. Most of us might throw a homeless person some money - few of us would gather up the time or the courage to actually talk to them, to interact as if they were also human beings. Nicole hits it right on the head - "People don't need just money/People need love and time". In caring for the supposed "least", we are "blowin' kisses" to our Savior. It may be a cheesy way of putting it, and I could do without the line "Got myself love-ified", but it's still a great song. There's another interlude at the end; this one seems to be an old recording of a man singing a spiritual, and it leads well into the next track, but most of the time, I skip it.

Redeemer probably needs no introduction - it was huge throughout the year 2000 and has a good shot of walking away with a Dove Award for Song of the Year. The strings and acoustic guitar do make it stand out from most of the other gospel songs I hear (and I am a little biased; most gospel music just isn't my thing, whether it's contemporary urban stuff or traditional choir stuff). What bogs this one down for me is that Nicole seems so busy trying to get across the emotion of her lyrics (and the song really is an inspiring one) that she doesn't follow the beat as well as she does on some of the other songs. It's one of my chief grievances with artists like CeCe Winans. Still, this song has a nice dramatic build to the finish (complete with a choir), and stands out as a contemporary classic.

Black, White, Tan is a breezy, simple song, and probably the most folk-influenced track on the record, bringing back the harmonica we heard in "Granny's Angel". I've never been to the Southern states, but the music seems to evoke a warm summer day in the South. Lyrically, it discusses racial issues as they are seen by Nicole's daughter Jasmine: "Mommy looks like coffee/Daddy looks like cream/baby is mocha-drop American dream." I really enjoy this song; it doesn't point fingers and call people racists, but instead it simply affirms the things God has done through an interracial marriage, asserting that this is becoming more and more a part of everyday American life (and I dare say implying that the church needs to accept it more than they have been). I think we get to hear Jasmine Mullen at the end, joining in with her mom for the last line, but thankfully, it's not long enough to be sickeningly cute.

Freedom takes on a style that I'll refer to as "ethnic techno" for lack of a better word - it merges a solid dance beat with some tribal-sounding background vocals. The song deals a lot with history, not flinching away from the fact that many African Americans are in America due to slavery, but also noting that blacks and whites fought together in the Civil War (at least I think that's where she's going with it). it's a great cross between the contemporary and the historical, and despite Nicole unnecessarily repeating, "I'm gonna get my shout out" near the end, it's quite a fun song.

Homemade is a slow, blues-inspired ballad that just never seems to get going the way it should. Don't get me wrong, the message here is great. Here Nicole tells a story from her childhood, of how her family was poor and the other kids on the bus would make fun of her and her sisters for having homemade clothing and so forth, but that in the end, those other children weren't provided for with the same care that her parents gave her. She describes running across one of them later in life and being asked for change; the girl who made fun of her is now homeless. At this point, part of me thought she was getting a little prideful about how she always gives money to homeless people, but that's not the point of the song. The point is that being brought up with money doesn't always guarantee a good future. However, despite some cool guitar licks from Nicole, I get bored with this song, and the interlude at the end of this track seems rather pointless - just a beat with a little kid crying in the background.

Color may seem redundant at this point; we've already had two very personal songs dealing with racial issues, and this one has more of a generic "true beauty is on the inside" statement that I think we've all heard and understood by this point. Still, I'm sure it's an issue Nicole deals with a lot, and this is a fun, upbeat musical structure in which to wrap that message. I have to smirk at some of Nicole's non-sequitur comments near the end, especially when she says, "I'm so funny I crack myself up!" It's got character, even if it's not one of her more poignant songs.

On My Knees is a fitting way to end the album - Nicole's own take on the smash hit she helped write for Jaci Velasquez. Her version isn't too different - it's led by an acoustic guitar and a slightly urban beat, and it doesn't have as much of the dramatic inspirational feel as Jaci V's version, but it's still a good song on its own. This is probably the version Nicole had in her head when she wrote it.

Overall, I love this CD despite a couple so-so tracks and all the little interludes. The interludes do help to make this album feel like a scrapbook of Nicole's life, to invite us inside the mind of a fun-loving songwriter. At times, she's almost like the urban version of Erin O'Donnell or Sarah Masen, and at others, she's a decent cross between CeCe Winans and Lauryn Hill. Whatever the case, this is one of the most personal and enjoyable R&B/gospel albums I've ever heard.

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: Granny's Angel, Black White Tan
Good: Free, Shooby, Butterfly, Redeemer, Blowin' Kisses, On My Knees
Decent: Farewell, Color
Weak: Family Tree, Homemade
Skippable: NONE

Website: http://www.nicolecmullen.com


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House