Music Review: Hiding Place by Tori Kelly
"As the deer pants for the water
So my soul, need You Lord"
- Psalm 42
So my soul, need You Lord"
- Psalm 42
Artist / Band: Tori Kelly
Label: Schoolboy Records & Capitol Records
Format available: Audio CD / Digital Audio
Release Date: September 14
Genre: R&B Gospel
On her new album Hiding Place, L.A.-based singer/songwriter Tori Kelly honors her deepest musical passion and delivers an R&B-infused, infectiously melodic take on classic gospel. The follow-up to her full-length debut Unbreakable Smile—a 2015 release that premiered at #2 on the Billboard 200—Hiding Place finds the co-star of the 2016 feature film Sing teaming up with 12-time Grammy Award-winning gospel legend Kirk Franklin. With a lush yet simply adorned sound beautifully suited to Kelly’s incomparable voice, the Franklin-produced album includes such standouts as the slow-burning, harmony-infused lead single “Help Us to Love” and the powerfully radiant, full-choir-driven “Soul’s Anthem.”
As she embraces gospel’s boundless intensity and pushes her vocal performance like never before, Hiding Place offers up what Franklin refers to as “hope-pop”—a classification that fully resonates with Kelly. “One of the things I want for this album is for people to feel uplifted and encouraged when they listen,” says the 2016 Grammy Award nominee for Best New Artist, who’s now at work on her next pop album. “I want them to know that, no matter what they’re going through, there’s a God who loves them so much and so unconditionally, and there’s always a reason to feel hope. That’s what I really believe in, and I want everyone out there to hear my heart.”
As she embraces gospel’s boundless intensity and pushes her vocal performance like never before, Hiding Place offers up what Franklin refers to as “hope-pop”—a classification that fully resonates with Kelly. “One of the things I want for this album is for people to feel uplifted and encouraged when they listen,” says the 2016 Grammy Award nominee for Best New Artist, who’s now at work on her next pop album. “I want them to know that, no matter what they’re going through, there’s a God who loves them so much and so unconditionally, and there’s always a reason to feel hope. That’s what I really believe in, and I want everyone out there to hear my heart.”
MY THOUGHTS
There's a bit of upbeat quality in Tori Kelly's newest album Hiding Place. Yes, it might have to do with the R&B infused elements, but I also think it has to do with the glimmer of hope, that sprinkles in her lyrics, and the melody that accompanies.
"I've cried many rivers
I've walked through some pain
I've seen my world crumble
And I'll carry the shame
But I know somebody, He calls me His own
I can hear heaven singing out
Oh-oh-oh, you're never alone
Oh-oh-oh, you're never alone"
- Never Alone
I've walked through some pain
I've seen my world crumble
And I'll carry the shame
But I know somebody, He calls me His own
I can hear heaven singing out
Oh-oh-oh, you're never alone
Oh-oh-oh, you're never alone"
- Never Alone
Though not every song touched me the same way, I can still say that every one resonates. The lyrics touches. The music catches on. And the way each song and melody seems to be a personal worship and prayer. My favorite being Never Alone and Psalm 42. One of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 42 shared this love, a simple need, but also a simple reminder when we thirst, it's Him we need. I think like the stories in a novel, music is very personal, and Hiding Place shared with its listeners a bit of the artist, and I think that makes it all the more beautiful.
Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of this album from the manufacturer. I was not required to write a positive review, and have not been compensated for this. This is my honest opinion.
TO PURCHASE A COPY:
ABOUT TORI KELLY
L.A.-based singer/songwriter Tori Kelly honors her deepest musical passion and delivers an R&B infused, infectiously melodic take on classic gospel album. She has teamed up with Kirk Franklin on Hiding Place, and the first single features him. Tori Kelly was the 2016 Grammy Award nominee for Best New Artist.
With its R&B-infused, deeply melodic take on classic
gospel, Hiding Place offers up what Franklin
refers to as “hope-pop”—a classification that fully resonates with Kelly. “One
of the things I want for this album is for people to feel uplifted and
encouraged when they listen,” she says. “I want them to know that, no matter
what they’re going through, there’s a God who loves them so much and so
unconditionally, and there’s always a reason to feel hope. That’s what I really
believe in, and I want everyone out there to hear my heart.”
As Kelly explains, the title to Hiding Place draws inspiration from a line in one of her favorite
psalms (“You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you
surround me with songs of deliverance”). “That always stuck with me: this idea
of God being a place of safety, a place where you can hide from all the crazy
things that this world can throw at us,” she notes.
Produced by Franklin, Hiding
Place unfolds with a lush yet simply adorned sound beautifully suited to
Kelly’s incomparable voice. “I’ve worked with Mary J. Blige, Bono, Yolanda
Adams, and I’ve never seen anyone that’s a monster behind the microphone like
Tori Kelly,” says Franklin. “She’d nail one song in three takes, and all those
takes were amazing. It set the bar higher for my whole career.”
While half of the songs on Hiding Place were penned solely by Franklin, the remaining tracks
came from a collaboration between him and Kelly—the first time that Franklin’s
ever co-written in a decades-long career that’s seen his songs performed by
legends like Stevie Wonder and Whitney Houston. (“It blew me away that she
wanted us to co-write, because she’s a phenomenal songwriter and could’ve
easily done it herself,” Franklin says.) And at Franklin’s urging, Hiding Place was mostly recorded at his
studio just outside Dallas. “The most important thing to me was that if Tori
wanted to do a gospel album—a real, authentic, heart-throbbing gospel
album—she’d have to come to the South,” he says. “Then she showed up at my
studio with no entourage, no handlers—just Tori and her guitar, standing at my
front door.”
With its sonic palette gracefully rooted in live
instrumentation, Hiding Place first
reveals its unbridled spirit on the album-opening “Masterpiece” (featuring
Houston-bred hip-hop artist Lecrae)—a joyfully uptempo track that instantly
sweeps the listener into a more radiant state of mind. From there, Kelly
delivers her slow-burning lead single “Help Us to Love,” whose breathtaking
harmonies feature the famed HamilTones (official background vocalists for
Grammy Award-winner Anthony Hamilton). Proving her versatility as an artist and
musician, Hiding Place then shifts
seamlessly from the silky groove and playful scat singing of “Sunday” to the sweetly
ethereal soul of “Just As Sure” (a duet with chart-topping gospel star Jonathan
McReynolds) to the quiet intensity of “Psalm 42.” “So many of the songs on this
album are so intricate, I wanted a song that I could play completely
stripped-down, just me and my guitar,” says Kelly of the tender piano ballad.
One of the most profound moments on Hiding Place, the hushed yet urgent ballad “Questions” finds Kelly tearfully
examining the current state of the world (sample lyric: “What happens when the
healing never comes?”). “It’s about trying to make sense of all the dark and
heavy things that keep happening, sort of crying out to God and asking, ‘What’s
going on? I don’t like what I see down here,’” says Kelly. Then, on the subtly
determined “Never Alone,” Kelly recollects her own struggles (“I’ve cried many
rivers/I’ve walked through some pain/Seen my world crumble”) and ultimately re-discovers
comfort and peace through her faith.
On “Soul’s Anthem,” Kelly closes out Hiding Place with an a cappella, full-choir-driven rendition of the
beloved hymn “It Is Well.” Perhaps the most powerfully captivating track on the
album, “Soul’s Anthem” also gave way to what Kelly considers a landmark moment
in her musical career. “Before we started, Kirk said to me, ‘Don’t look at me
or the choir, just look down and get into your own world,’” says Kelly, who
recorded “Soul’s Anthem” at the iconic Capitol Studios. “So I sang it all the
way through, and at one point there’s a part where the choir takes over. I
looked up and saw all these incredible singers, and it finally hit me that this
was really happening. You can’t hear it on the recording, but I’m crying at the
end of the song.”
Looking back on the making of Hiding Place, Kelly still marvels at the experience. “I always
thought I would do something like this, but I thought it would be much further
down the line,” she says. “It’s been in my heart for some time, but the timing
didn’t feel right until now. I didn’t think I’d get the chance to work with
someone like Kirk just yet, and that people would be so excited and accepting.”
And though the album marks a stylistic departure from her work in the pop
world, a commitment to uncompromising artistry carries through all of Kelly’s
music. “No matter what genre you’re working in, there should be a level of
excellence, and Tori definitely brought that excellence to this album,” says
Franklin. “A lot of artists out there will rely on Auto-Tune or studio tricks,
but there’s no button you can push for emotion, and there’s no button for
skill. Tori is excellent in everything she does, because she’s a real, pure
artist.”
As she gets ready to share Hiding Place with the world, Kelly hopes that it might give others
the same sense of solace and joy she’s found in gospel in her entire life. And
as the album’s creator, one of the most rewarding aspects of Hiding Place was embracing gospel’s
boundless intensity, and pushing her vocal performance like never before. “With
gospel music, you can’t sing without all your heart being in it,” says Kelly.
“This album was an opportunity to not only express my faith and my love for
God, but to do what I felt and never hold back. I could just be free and let
the song take me over.”
FLASH Giveaway Held on Instagram
Winner: @fortheloveofChristianFiction
“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post. Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller/FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days on the same blog, you are not eligible to win. Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.
Comments
Post a Comment