to listen or purchase
Le’Andria Johnson emerged as the winner in the 2009 season of Sunday Best because of her ability to sing classic gospel. As if to drive that point home, Johnson opened and closed her debut album, The Awakening of Le’Andria Johnson, with medleys of old fashioned gospel tunes such as “Maybe God’s Trying to Tell You Something.”
However, Johnson’s debut album showed that the vocalist spent more than a little bit of time boning up on modern R&B production techniques. On tunes such as “Make Him Like You,” Johnson used music to place a topic like dating and relationships in a biblical context.
Le’Andria Johnson emerged as the winner in the 2009 season of Sunday Best because of her ability to sing classic gospel. As if to drive that point home, Johnson opened and closed her debut album, The Awakening of Le’Andria Johnson, with medleys of old fashioned gospel tunes such as “Maybe God’s Trying to Tell You Something.”
However, Johnson’s debut album showed that the vocalist spent more than a little bit of time boning up on modern R&B production techniques. On tunes such as “Make Him Like You,” Johnson used music to place a topic like dating and relationships in a biblical context.
Johnson’s songwriting is both more diversified and focused on The Evolution of Le’Andria Johnson. The album includes tunes steeped in the classic gospel sound that Johnson mastered as a choir member and soloist in the churches of her youth. The CD also features the kind of high-spirited participatory cuts that Johnson sings as a praise and worship leader at her current church. Finally, The Evolution of Le’Andria Johnson includes numbers with a contemporary sound that will draw interest from gospel and secular radio programmers and help this artist cross over into the R&B market.
“He Was There” and “Sooner or Later” showcase Johnson’s comfort with classic gospel. The former is a mid-tempo tune in which shesings about how God was an ever-present force in her life who patiently waited for her to acknowledge and depend on Him. Johnson slows the pace down on “Sooner Or Later,” which is cut that shows the close relationship between the gospel and the blues.
Listeners will don their dancing shoes on the rollicking “Overtaken.” The song is the prototype of a praise and worship song. It sports an energetic beat and lyrics about the cares of this world being overwhelmed by God’s joy and peace. “Overtaken” has an easy to remember hook that will encourage congregational singing.
Finally, cuts like “It’s Gonna Be Alright,” serve as Johnson’s high quality pitch for airplay on urban radio. Secular stations have long found gospel songs that merge and inspirational but not overly preachy message with those hip-hop infused production techniques that are the rage these days.
On The Evolution of Le’Andria Johnson, award-winning vocalist Le'Andria Johnson takes the next step in her recording career, as she shows she has the voice and the songwriting chops to become a Gospel music learder. And in the process she provides radio, traditionalists and choirs what they are all looking for. Recommended.
By Howard Dukes