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Label: Word/Curb/Warner Bros.
Sound/Style: Inspirational pop/soul fusion with emphasis on vocals and rhythms
By Steve Morley
In her varied occupations as fashion designer, voice-over artist and songwriter, singer Nicole C. Mullen has established herself as a talented and energetic woman who isn’t content to sit in one spot for long. As a Christian artist, she’s already forged a singular sound out of soul, pop, gospel, folk and urban R&B. Her most recent studio release, Sharecropper’s Seed, Volume 1, takes her musical evolution a step further. Adding African elements and dialing down the modern production for a more organic feel, she breaks out of the often limiting contemporary Christian mold, yet provides enough predictability to cover the mainstream bases.
The conceptually-based album is a tribute to her family line, with the emphasis on the importance of her godly and prayerful forebears. The title cut effectively retells the story of the singer’s sharecropper grandfather, moving from his faith-building trials in the fields to the fruitful fulfillment of a spiritual principle. (“Stories like these told to me from my mother / Of grandpa and them back when/ She said most of the good crops today that I was reaping/ Were sown in love by them.”)
Like the sentimental title tune, “When I Grow Up” demonstrates Mullen’s canny aim for the emotional bull’s-eye, illustrating a supportive dad and a son who longs to emulate him. (“The answer finally came to me/ What it is I wanna be/ And Superman I’m thinkin’ just won’t do/ When I grow up I wanna be like you.”) In the final verse, Mullen unveils the source of this effective parenting in a masterful turnaround. Even if you see it coming, it’s likely to be a Kleenex moment.
With only three tracks addressing a family theme (the third a highly personal lullaby to her own offspring), Mullen’s concept can seem thin. The harvest of faith for which she honors her family, though, springs up in several strongly devotional titles. On these, she frequently takes unexpected detours from stock pop song formats.
The earthy, percussion-and-vocal-driven arrangement featured on “Under the Shadow” re-energizes the familiar lines of Psalm 91, while “Convinced,” her loose paraphrase of Romans 8, begins in a straightforward pop-rock style that suddenly unfurls into an African coda so infectious you wish it had started sooner.
Mullen confounds commercial expectations on “Fall,” a slow-building ode to humility that declares “the way to the sky starts low to the ground.” Mullen simulates this ascent musically, transitioning from an intimate string ensemble to a gospel-rock workout.
As a singer, Mullen maintains an invitingly understated tone, admirably avoiding the temptation to over-sing—a chronic flaw in much modern pop and R&B. Her original songs are engaging, if a tad saccharine at times, and the potent hybrid sound she’s planted on Sharecropper’s Seed is proof of a fertile imagination, indeed.
Audio Clips
"Sharecropper's Seed"
"So In Love"
"One Touch (Press)"
"Convinced"
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