After singing backup for Yolanda Adams and rhythm and blues vocalist Tony Terry, Kelly Chapman has released her solo debut CD, Real. She co-writes many of the songs on this high energy CD, featuring a mix of praise and worship songs (most notably a cover of Darlene Zschech's "Shout to the Lord"), Gospel songs, and a variety of spoken intervals. Some of these intervals are spoken words of scripture, and at least one is a short scene acted out. Chapman has a good voice, but it's not by any means one that will rival the voices of Gospel greats such as Yolanda Adams or CeCe Winans.
Unfortunately, there is just too much going on on this CD. Some CDs will feature a symphony on one or several tracks. Some CDs will feature guest vocals by a child. Some CDs feature covers of popular praise and worship songs (such as "Shout to the Lord" and "Above All"). Some CDs will feature a choir doing background vocals. Some CDs will feature spoken interludes with Bible verses. Very few CDs do all of these things, and even fewer do them all well. This CD does all of them but does not do them all well. They just give the project a crowded, busy feel to it, resulting in a CD with no flow to it.
A word of warning to users of Windows Media Player: this is one of a rare number of CDs where Windows Media Player incorrectly recognizes the various CD tracks. Windows Media Player treats the five interludes as separate songs, but they are not listed on the liner notes of the project. This means that listeners have to sample each track, with lyrics in hand, in order to accurately list the track names by hand in Windows Media Player.
Chapman does have a good voice, and some Gospel fans may enjoy this CD, but many others will find Real too busy, with too much going on for their tastes.
1.5 tocks
