Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

Juliette Farrell is a neo soul/nu gospel singer/songwriter hailing from the West Midlands, previously part of the trio Chos3n. This self-penned collection of nine songs, released in July 2017, is part one of a double album and Juliette elaborates on her thinking behind the project, "Nine fruits is about the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit and the way we display them in our behaviour, our fruits. That really captured my imagination. We take those behaviours and put our Christian ethos into the way we treat others.Our fruit shows the thoughts we have, our core spirit." Stylistically we're largely in Erykah Badu territory, albeit not quite as polished, with a few diversions such as the housey "Infinity" and the lovely chilled intro vibe of "I Got Mine", which could easily be an LTJ Bukem mellow moment. Juliette has a strong and versatile voice that she can as easily turn to smooth soul as well as to the more quirky vocal sound of the intro, "I Can See", the strongest track on the album. There are occasional lapses in vocal intonation, particularly in the harmonies which are not always spot-on. Overall production quality is reasonable, with some less-successful moments such as "Talk About (You)", which tries to sound lazy but ends up just dragging. However, the biggest elephant in the room is that, whilst there are some really soulful moments, there's a distinct lack of memorable melodic hooks and, having listened through several times, I still can't reproduce a single tune. With the majority of songs meandering along aimlessly, it ultimately is an unsatisfactory collection.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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