It's times like these that words threaten to fail me. Following a style rejuvenating mission that led Christian popster Jaci Velasquez out of Nashville, overseas to London and straight into Martin Terefe's Kensaltown studios, she has promptly run back to Mark Heimermann, the producer behind her first three albums, to fashion a short and lazy attempt to re-enter the good graces of the CCM circle. Pandering to the crowd that rejected her indiefied endeavor three years ago,
Love Out Loud is a gooey, conservative non-event that is bent on being as inoffensive as possible. Packaged in an Easter basket color scheme, there's not a single decent song to be found here, let alone a
good one. Velasquez sounds bored and uninspired, as if it's all she could do to refrain from checking her watch while singing. And who could blame her? From tired subject matter to dopey rhymes, stunted songwriting abounds on
Love Out Loud, and Velasquez doesn't appear to treat it all as anything other than an obligation to just get through. Album opener "Nothing But Sky" finds her
ready and willing to fly because, of course,
now there's nothing but sky! Title track and lead single "Love Out Loud" encourages believers to live out their faith unabashedly, and resorts to relying on overused clichés in the process:
Love out loud without fear
Sing a song and let the whole world hear.
But perhaps the album's worst underachieving lyrical offender is contained within "Jesus (The Way)," a song which repeats its title word eight times per chorus. Beyond that, Velasquez powers through discussing relationship struggles on "It's Not You, It's Me" and throws her Spanish fans a bone with "Por escrito," a duet with her husband, Salvador's Nic Gonzales. Late in the tracklisting, it's when she sings of her new marriage on "A Likely Story" and "Tango" that Velasquez perks up and sounds like she's finally enjoying herself. But more often that not, themes that must be close to Velasquez's heart somehow come across as entirely impersonal, and are ultimately ineffective in earning your interest or emotions. It's all a rather dubious experience, as 2005's Beauty Has Grace showed Velasquez on the verge of an artistic breakthrough, and to see her race back to the safe familiarity she'd just recently dared to ease away from is troubling. Whether Velasquez is suffering through an identity crisis, heeding the questionable advice of others or simply distracted by impending motherhood, she has unfortunately followed up her strongest album with one that is by far her weakest.
