Man, it's good to have Cindy Morgan back. The piano-playing singer/songwriter was never one of my absolute favorites, but she's someone I've come to admire more and more as her career has developed, moving away from her pop diva origins and taking more artistic control of her musical output within the otherwise very controlling climate of Christian music. Hitting her pinnacle in the second half of the 90's with the whimsical, somewhat personal, and often surprising Listen, and the skillfully woven concept album The Loving Kind, Cindy might have faltered slightly with the apparent return to happy-go-lucky pop music on 2001's Elementary. Certainly her record label thought so, unceremoniously dropping her and sending her off with a less-than-satisfactory greatest hits package. But it might be her absence over the few years (she had other things to do anyway, such as having a baby) that's helped me to realize the meaningful place she had held within an increasingly meaningless industry. And I knew she'd be back sooner or later, so I was ready to welcome 2006's Postcards with open arms.

What I expected from Postcards, her first album for Reunion Records, was a comeback that would remind me of the Cindy we all knew and loved. But what I didn't bargain for was a shift in sound dynamics that couldn't really be matched up with any of Cindy's past albums. I mean, she was pictured sitting on top of a piano on the CD cover, so what was with all of the acoustic guitars and other folksy stuff? Don't get me wrong; I like folksy stuff - I'm more biased toward acoustic guitar than piano. But still, I was used to Cindy's smooth, emotional, and occasional gutsy singing style pouring out over the more fluid sounds of the piano, rather than paired up with more rootsy elements. It's gutsy in its own way - insisting on a stylistic shift away from what would help you regain your popularity after a five-year hiatus - and I have to applaud her for that. At the same time, does this uneasy combination of raw, stripped-down acoustics with production flourishes such as lush strings and occasional Middle Eastern instrumentation really work for Cindy? Do the piano songs sound better to me simply because they're more familiar territory? Why exactly is Postcards less exciting in principle than in practice?

Ah, I think I have it figured out. It might be the lyrics. Despite the free-spirited nature of the music (which actually does hearken back to Listen, in spirit more so than in actual audible resemblance), Cindy seems to be sticking to "safe" Christian-ese topics more so than usual here. Past albums dealt with death, difficult family issues, betrayal, repentance, unanswered prayers, and the like, in between some of their more easygoing songs. (Even the seemingly-insipid Elementary, amid its more well-crafted musical moments, hid some weightier themes among its many tracks). Here, we get some interesting stories on a few occasions - details of a lost soul's wanderings, a struggle for respect between mother and daughter, stuff like that. But then we have a lot of "God is good" type stuff that, while emotionally believable, doesn't seem to reach as far beyond the surface as we're used to from Cindy. The music's inventive, but the lyrics are lagging behind, and that puts Cindy in an uncomfortable position of not being able to demand most critics' attention, but not being able to secure a spot on Christian radio, either. As a result, while I do think there are a lot of positives about this disc, I can't be so sure that it will be a successful venture for Cindy. Being a big-name artist to the point where merely releasing an album during a particular year guaranteed you a slot on the latest WoW compilation and a Dove nod or two may have meant a lot in Cindy's heyday, but it doesn't translate into an automatic audience now. So I'm thinking that while Postcards is an above average album with a few strong merits, it kind of relegates Cindy to "niche" status, which is really too bad.

Nevertheless, there are some interesting hideaways to explore along the journey documented by Postcards, so let's get this show on the road.

Deep
I sing because it's burning inside me
I think it's the place where You find me...
From the get-go, you can tell that this isn't your usual Cindy Morgan album. The muted strumming of an acoustic guitar, with dry, unadorned drums backing it up and the swell of strings rising up in the background here and there, takes the place of the expected piano during a subtle verse. Cindy is singing in a rather mellow (but still pretty) tone of voice about her thirst for God - basic subject, but an interesting musical framework to place it. When electric guitars get cranked up for the chorus, it's almost too much for Cindy to handle without it overwhelming her - her voice is definitely an odd fit, as she sounds almost raspy trying to compete with the shift in volume level. While the song is artfully presented, with the playful string arrangement and the surprising bridge which slows the pace down and pulls in some more exotic instrumentation, it's not quite a cohesive enough number to really become a classic. Then again, Cindy Morgan hasn't really rocked out since "Moon Days", so I guess she had it coming.

Enough
Her there, mirror, well you're the guiltiest one I see
You point the finger, of course they're all pointing back at me...
Good thing each title was listed on its own line on the back cover of the CD - otherwise I'd have thought the album started with one song called "Deep Enough". In any event, another upbeat song gets underway with more strumming (a little brighter in tone this time) and vague hints of sitars droning in the background. This is another rock song of sorts for Cindy, though it has a bit of a plodding pace that reminds me of "The March", one of the less convincing songs on The Loving Kind. It's a song with admirable subject matter - she's asking why we act as if we're deprived of so much when we live in a free country, our children are fed, etc. The song is a bit unfocused - I'm not sure whether she's tackling materialism, or hypocrisy within the church, or what - she goes after easy targets such as the media and "prosperity Gospel" preachers, before wisely turning the finger back at herself. It would probably all flow a bit better if the chorus said a little more than just "Enough, enough, enough, whoawhoawhoayeaaaaah-ee-yeah". That, and the constant duh-duh-duh of the same guitar chord can get on my nerves at times. The Eastern-inflected coda is nice, though.

Postcards
Crawled through the desert and swam in the ocean
Tried meditation and a few magic potions
Marches at the White House against the attacks
Sent a call out to Buddah, and he never called back...
The album's title track is a nostalgic, slightly playful piano romp in 6/8 time, with its music and subject matter reminding me a bit of Carolyn Arends' "Seize the Day" and Mark Schultz's "Letters from War". It's about a lost soul who embarks on a journey, presumably circa the 60's, exploring several locales and ideologies in an attempt to find him/herself. The meaning in all of these Forrest Gump-like exploits gets summed up in letters sent home, "postcards from my journey to me". While I've heard plenty of songs written in the form of letters before, this one stands out for its swaying rhythm and sing-along melody - it'll probably be deemed too personal to fins success at Christian radio, but in a more open-minded era when "modern worship" didn't dominate the airwaves (say, the late 90's), I think it would have stood a chance.

Glory
There's a time for tears and laughter
A time for peace, a time for war
A time for sowing, a time for reaping
Oh time, don't you wish you had some more...
Now we're getting back into familiar territory, with the piano and Cindy's heartfelt balladry taking center stage (along with some odd knocking sounds serving as the percussion - it kind of gets in the way, if you ask me). As you can probably tell from the title, this is a pretty simple song about a fairly basic concept within Christianity. Specifically, it deals with the rejoicing that happens when one lost soul comes to Christ, and as such, it's presented compellingly. "The Father and the Son will welcome you, hallelu", she sings with a calm but bright sense of excitement. It sort of sidesteps the traditional "inspirational ballad" production, opting to fill in the gaps with acoustic guitar and some background vocals repeating "doo-dah-dah", instead of the usual "weepy strings". I like the arrangement - it's heartfelt and believable, and probably Cindy's best shot at a radio single on this project. The background vocals, which take the song into a long fade after we would have expected it to end, turn out to be the small piece that sticks in the mind when it's all said and done.

Where You Are
You can be the next man on death row, with everything to lose
A president, a CEO with nothing left to prove
A mother of four, struggling and poor, with no time left to pray
A deathbed conversion, guilty coersion, creekbed sumersion, anyway...
Well, I've probably heard a million of these - the "Name of a bunch of stock sins and then tell people that God is wherever they are" song. Yeah, I think Cindy punted in the lyrics department on this one, despite her best attempts at creating characters who do specific things. There's something more to folk songwriting than listing stock characters like these, and apparently Cindy hasn't figured out how to tap into that strength. It's really too bad, because there's a wealth of grassy goodness to this song, with its steel guitars springing out at the listener almost immediately, and its medium-paced, snaky rhythm stopping just short of letting this be a "hard country" type of song. I'm getting flashbacks to Susan Ashton, Margaret Becker and Christine Dente's "Walk On" from about eleven years years ago, and that's actually a good thing, even if this song isn't as good as that one was. It's the whole idea of hearing a classy pop singer in this sort of "dirt and overalls" mode - vocally, this one works well for her, unlike some of the other folk-inspired offerings on this disc.

Mother
And you try to control me and manipulate me
But love is a much stronger tool
So speak to me kindly and show some respect
And I promise I'll show some to you...
Now this track is brilliant. Another gently circling rhythm of 6/8, just piano and vocals at the beginning this time, draws us into an uneasy tale of a mother and daughter who shared a deep bond from the daughter's birth, but who couldn't quite see eye to eye as the daughter grew older and developed a mind of her own. Cindy was brave to write a song like this about her own mother, in the midst of ongoing difficulties with said parent. At times it's a loving tribute, and at others, she's essentially saying "back off and let me live life for myself". It's not a overtly angry song - she's just trying to find a middle ground where she can be close friends with her mother, without being smothered. What's nice is that it's so honest - unlike most other CCM songs about parents or children that just gush endlessly, or bitter mainstream songs on the subject where the whiny post-teenage flavor of the week whines about how their parents screwed everything up for them. This is the one song on the album that I think will stand out over time as the "classic" - not necessarily in the sense of a likely radio hit, but definitely in the sense of being an all-around well-written song.

Oh What Love
Mighty arms are there to hold you
When you need to cry
And mighty wings are there to raise you
When you learn to fly...
Here's one instance where the folk/country influence merges with Cindy's pre-existing style in more of a believable way. Thus far, it's mostly been an either/or thing on this album - Cindy's either done the earthy folk stuff, or the classier piano pop. Here, a gently flowing piano ballad, one that would probably seem repetitive and dull (though still somewhat pretty) by normal standards, gets spruced up quite a bit by dropping in some gentle, but absolutely gorgeous acoustic and steel guitar parts. It doesn't sound like a country song, but it also doesn't sound like the tenth attempt to redo "I Will Be Free", even if it does evoke some of those same emotions. "Oh what love He has for you", is pretty must the gist of the chorus and the main point communicated by the song - it's a moment where the weight of meaning is imparted more by the music than the lyrics alone.

Eternal Sunshine
Well, the air is crisp and clean, and he's on the 7th hole
He's been swinging like a Tiger, and his friends all tell him so
Well, sure, this isn't Heaven, as far as we all know
But to him, it's pretty close...
Nope, this one doesn't have anything to do with the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Pity, because that was a great movie. The music does have more of a whimsical tone, though, somewhat like that movie did - there just isn't any darkness or weirdness to it. (Describing Heaven on earth as a big watercolor painting actually reminds me more of What Dreams May Come, but I digress.) Returning to an upbeat mood, and pulling the strings back in to add a slight element of fantasy to an unabashed pop song, this one would be a winner if not for the slightly insipid lyrics about how things like painting and golf are heaven on earth to certain people, and if not for the uncomfortable missed notes during the bridge. I guess the producers went for a "warts and all" approach on the vocals just to prove Cindy wasn't all about using the big voice to win us over, but you know, they already tried that approach with Jaci Velasquez last year, and it was horrible. It's OK for someone to have a pretty voice, and just use it in more subtle ways. You shouldn't have to mess up on your own record just to prove how "real" you are.

Dig Up
Do you ever get that feeling when you're dreaming
That your dream is too big to believe in
Don't pack it up or put it down or push it all aside
Before you give yourself a chance to really live your life...
This jaunty pop song, with its relentless, percussive piano playing and funky, descending chord sequence, is definitely one of the album's biggest worms. Something about the melody is just so odd and unexpected that you can't help but hum along once you catch on. The jury's still out on whether I think that's a good thing here, because on a bad day, this one can really irritate me. I love the message - that we need to be brave and face the dirty condition of our souls and find out what really makes us tick. "A buried treasure too grand too measure" might be a little too kids-cartoonish of a way to describe the ultimate worth found within despite all of the dirt, but I won't make too big of a deal out of it. Cindy's come up with a unique and fun arrangement that explores the more percussive side of her piano playing, and matches it well with the jerky guitar playing and drumming, making for what I'm sure must have been a fun in-studio jam session.

Come Home
I guess we're all miracles still in the making
For each moonless night, there's a dawn that is breaking
Until we find ourselves there in the arms of the angels, waking...
Who, a ukulele? That's cheating; she knew I'd hear something that reminded me of Hawaii and I'd immediately fall in love with the song! Actually, including a ukulele (which plays along lazily in 6/8 time, rather than the more "island-style" strum you might hear in most Hawaiian music) and an accordion was a good move - much like the steel guitar did for "Oh What Love", these instruments spruce up an otherwise ordinary song. What we have here is a simple call for a lost soul to return to God, as Cindy assures them that there's nothing but love and celebration awaiting them upon their return. The sweet melody and background vocals, along with the quirky instrumentation, are what sell the song, especially during the bridge and its joyous line about the angels waking. (That comes after what I think is a veiled reference back to a much older song of hers, "Miracle in the Making" - I rather liked that one, as I recall.)

The River
Father, mother, son and daughter
We're all searching for that peace
That can heal us, and reveal to us
The sweet forgiveness we all need...
I guess we had no choice but to end with a piano ballad. Cindy picks more of a wandering, uneasy melody for this one, rather than going for something straightforward. The minimalism actually reminds me of "Love's Sweet Name" from Under the Waterfall, with the starry gloss taken out and some minor-key brooding added in. You can hear plucking strings in the background, and the strings eventually creep up and become more prominent and emotional. It's a good showcase for Cindy's more dramatic side, even if the song never seems to come to a climax before its gentle, almost sudden resolution. Comparing God's grace and forgiveness to a river is definitely a cliché, so I'm not going to award a lot of points for the lyrics here, but I applaud her for not ending things on a typical note, musically speaking.

Postcards is nice enough as an experiment - there are a few tracks that I'd like to stamp "Return to Sender", but if the end result is that Cindy can carry a few lessons forward in terms of how she's learned to expand her musical pallette, then I look forward to seeing what her future holds. Unless she reverts back to doing typical pop diva stuff a la her first two albums, she'll pretty much have a lifelong pass from me in terms of her albums being guaranteed buys when they release. As for whether she can maintain a sizeable enough audience to avoid getting dropped by another major label... well, time will tell if Cindy can regain the CCM industry stamp of approval. That's a dubious achievement anyway, but probably a necessary evil if I hope to hear any more from her in the near future.

ALBUM WORTH:
Deep $1.50
Enough $.50
Postcards $1
Glory $1.50
Where You Are $.50
Mother $2
Oh What Love $1.50
Eternal Sunshine $.50
Dig Up $1
Come Home $1.50
The River $1
TOTAL: $12.50

Website: http://www.cindymorganmusic.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Reading or Studying