Smokie Norful – Forever Yours

Smokie Norful
Forever Yours
Tre Myles Music / Motown Gospel (2014)
www.motowngospel.com

By Bob Marovich

Grammy Award-winning vocalist Smokie Norful burst upon the national stage in 2002 with the breakout hit, “I Need You Now.” The song, featuring Norful’s trademark melismatic tenor, not only garnered significant gospel radio airplay, but also made the playlist of nighttime Quiet Storm programming.

A licensed minister even before his solo career took flight, Norful founded Victory Cathedral Worship Center in suburban Chicago in 2005 and has released at least three recorded sermons.

Forever Yours, the latest fruit of his labors, explores new musical territory while also containing the components that have made Norful a success. He is never better than when accompanied by acoustic piano, as on the album’s current single, “No Greater Love.” The minimal accompaniment affords Norful the opportunity to do what he does best: deliver a passionately sung conversation—his voice shimmies up and down the stave with rococo flowers and trills—about the love of the Father for His children, despite their faults.

The premise of the prodigal son and daughter surfaces several times on the album, as on “Imperfect Me” and the CCM-flavored “He Loves Me,” which concludes with an interpolation of the Sunday School chestnut “Jesus Loves Me.” Norful sings about Jesus’s love with a confidence borne of belief, but with a wide-eyed amazement that He would deign to love us in spite of ourselves.

“I Need a Word,” supported by a string section, not only bears musical resemblance to “I Need You Now,” but has that hit’s deeply personal feel in its lyrics, a prayer passionately presented from some secret place in the soul.

With the happy, zesty, and ultimately radio-friendly beat of “Mighty God,” Norful strays from his time-tested formula. He also experiments with a Northern Soul-feel on “I’ve Got What You Need;” and floats “Nothing Is Impossible,” on an island beat.

If Smokie Norful is not as omnipresent as a live performer as other gospel singers of his generation, largely because of his ministerial duties, Forever Yours proves that it is not necessary: he can still deliver the goods.

Five of Five Stars

Picks: “No Greater Love,” “I Need a Word”