Grace Williams - Fire Fall

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California-based Grace's fifth album seeks to draw the listener into the presence of God through sounds and music of a meditational nature. It is very simplistic, which this genre requires, in terms of both the music and the lyrics. Unfortunately, the nature of this type of music means that people will be very clearly divided in their response. There will be those who are deeply and profoundly affected by it on a spiritual level, and these are the people to whom Grace wants to speak. The other group will most likely lose interest after the first 20 seconds and find nothing in the music that reaches them or draws them near to God. This music is very slow in pace and is comprised essentially of Grace singing repeated phrases over a texture of piano, guitar and the odd synthesized sound. "Don't Ever Let Go" is a good example, with its sweeping, beautiful vocals repeating those words over and over again. It certainly wouldn't win any awards if "judged" as music in itself, but this is missing the point. There is such personal preference involved that the rating becomes almost arbitrary and unless you are already a fan of the genre the best thing is to sample the music for yourself before making the purchase.