Jasmine Burch – Declaration

Jasmine Burch
Declaration
M.Y.R.O.H. Music Group (2010)
http://www.jasmineburch.com/

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

To say Jasmine Burch has grown up with gospel music would be an understatement.

She was exposed to it, quite literally, before she was born. While some mothers play Mozart to their gestating babies, Jasmine’s mother picked the way funkier Tommies’ If I Be Lifted LP.  I think Burch is all the better for her mother’s choice.

Surrounded thus by music, the Raleigh, NC native has been singing, and singing gospel, since she was three. She released her debut CD, Declaration, on Joe Jones’ M.Y.R.O.H. imprint, and the result is a appealing blend of pop, gospel and amped-up urban R&B. The album employs gospelized power pop to deliver its inspirational messages, which seem especially directed toward young and young-ish listeners.

The songs, written or co-written by Joanna Jones, have a Top 40 docility and are well-suited to Burch’s pleasurable voice. In its opening seconds, the album’s single, “Whatcha Gon Do?” leaps at the listener, then relates vignettes of young people whose circumstances caused them to make decisions not in their best interest. Burch reminds the protagonists (and listeners, de facto) that the solution is only a prayer away. “Hold On” is a variation of this theme, encouraging the disenchanted to keep the faith and maintain their vision, whatever it may be. On the title track, Burch suggests that she herself made some course corrections.

Other songs portray Jesus as a friend (“Best Friend”) and an object of agape (“Love Me for Me,” “Lover of My Soul”). With its catchy rhythm and uncomplicated message, “Best Friend” could be on the pop charts, though to be fair, it is actually more compelling and memorable than many of the current songs on said chart.

Declaration is a strong debut for this twenty-two year-old Raleigh, NC native, the kind of project that even those who don’t like gospel can cozy up to.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Whatcha Gon Do?,” Best Friend.”