a Gustav Dore engraving<\/a>?
\n<\/p>\nLikes<\/h2>\n
*Let\u2019s get this out of the way first:\u00a0I heart Wes Hampton\u2019s voice. Sorry I don\u2019t have anything more profound to add here, it\u2019s just a fact. Okay, maybe I\u2019ll say a bit more: Wes\u00a0can take a\u00a0run-of-the-mill song and lift it up a couple notches, because even if I\u2019m uninterested in the song, I am interested in hearing the places his voice goes with it. It\u2019s more powerful, more substantial, and has a much\u00a0<\/em>bigger range\u00a0than your average CCM radio voice. At the same time, it\u2019s pure, youthful, and easy to listen to.
\n* \u201cNeed Him the Most\u201d \u00a0features some guest vocals from the Martins, and it offers a welcome break from the samey, glossy pop sound that pervades most of the album with more of a countrified, Little Big Town feel. It sounds like the kind of thing Karen Peck & New River might have recorded. It\u2019s also a good lyric.
\n* \u201cEcho of You\u201d is an elaborate worship\u00a0affair\u00a0featuring special guest vocals from Steve Green and David Phelps. All three vocalists get a chance to show off some glory notes with a pleasingly soaring melody. Granted, they\u2019re very nearly drowned out by the track as the song reaches its climax, then keeps ringing\u00a0the changes on said climax for another couple minutes until\u00a0I\u2019m going,\u00a0\u201cGee, that\u2019s one\u00a0loud\u00a0<\/em>echo.\u201d But no matter. It\u2019s just so good to hear Steve\u2019s voice, and he definitely holds his own here with the two young\u2019uns. David who?
\n* \u201cNothing Can Take You From Me\u201d is a tender, earnest ballad, spoken from the perspective of God to his child. In general, I shy away from tender, earnest ballads spoken in the voice of God, but Wes successfully melts my heart of stone.
\n* \u201cMy Father\u2019s House\u201d is a thoughtful lyric that pulls back a little bit and lets Wes paint a simple picture of heaven for us.<\/p>\nIn my father\u2019s house<\/em>
\nThere are rooms and rooms forever down the hall<\/em>\u00a0[<\/strong>
\nAnd in my father\u2019s house<\/em>
\nThere\u2019s a lot of family pictures on the walls\u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n* The closing \u201cHe is Here\u201d is an exclusive live recording of one of Wes\u2019s sugar sticks, plus a great harmony vocal from Marshall Hall. Finally, we actually get to\u00a0hear\u00a0<\/em>Wes\u2019s voice, and it sounds like it could have been a studio vocal.<\/p>\nDislikes<\/h2>\n
*As I\u2019ve already mentioned, there is way too much compressed sameness in the tracks.\u00a0Most of them are full-blast from note one. (\u201cWrestling the Wind\u201d\u00a0cruelly offers my eardrums some hope with a\u00a0promising piano-only intro, only to commence the attack after a few peaceful seconds.) While Hampton manfully rises above the noise with some soaring vocals, I believe he shines best with more restrained production, and I rarely felt like I was simply getting to hear him sing.
\n*The writing: Some\u00a0of these songs fall into one of two categories: earworms, or songs that try to say something, but say it clunkily. As an example of the latter, \u201cEternal\u201d is much too wordy, has an overly on-the-nose hook (\u201cWho we are really matters. It makes a difference\u201d), and sits awkwardly with the meandering melody. \u201cYou Can\u2019t Hold Me Back\u201d tries to be original but only winds up reminding the listener of how much more memorable Dallas Holm\u2019s \u201cRise Again\u201d was along the same lines.
\n* \u201cOut On a Limb\u201d (formerly titled \u201cMe and God\u201d) is a cute, catchy little tune dedicated to Wes\u2019s boys, featuring some background vocals from them. The title of the album comes from the \u201cAwww\u201d-inducing chorus. But one\u00a0piece of the lyric has me scratching my head. The verses have a series of \u201cI\u2019m not saying you can\u2019t [\u2026], but you can\u2019t [\u2026].\u201d Example, \u201cI\u2019m not saying you can\u2019t break my heart, but you can\u2019t break my heart.\u201d Well, that\u2019s not true! For any parent, that\u2019s obviously not true. How many parents\u2019 hearts have indeed been broken by their children? Obviously, we pray that our children won\u2019t break our hearts, but the song seems to be saying that it\u2019s an impossibility<\/em>. So that seems like a flaw.
\n* \u201cCross On a Hill\u201d: This hot mess of a lyric deserves its own bullet point. It\u2019s doubly frustrating because it\u2019s one of the most musically interesting numbers on the album. I\u2019m not sure who the female guest vocalist is, but she has a great voice. The track is\u00a0a tasty\u00a0bit of gospop. And divorced from context, the hook seems solid: \u201cThe only place to go to find the Father\u2019s will is that cross on a hill.\u201d Too bad it\u2019s\u00a0littered with cringe-worthy verses\u00a0like this:<\/p>\nWill the war ever stop, will the fire cease?<\/em>
\nWill we lay our weapons down?<\/em>
\nWill the hands that we\u2019re using to throw these stones<\/em>
\nEver open and re-focus their power?<\/em>
\n[snip]\nWill the arguments fade into words of love?<\/em>
\nWill we lay our egos down?<\/em>
\n\u2018Cuz the lost don\u2019t need to hear another opinion<\/em>
\nThey\u2019d rather see what Jesus\u2019 love is about<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nOkay, to start with,\u00a0the line about \u201copening our hands to re-focus their power\u201d is just silly. I couldn\u2019t figure out whether the writer meant this:
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tutordoctorofwny.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/09\/i3_recruitment_raising_hands_small.jpg\")
\n\u2026or maybe, this:
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.jesus-is-savior.com\/Wolves\/benny_hinn-india.jpg\")
\nI\u2019m personally going with this:
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thefilmstage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/2008_iron_man_001.jpg\")
\nBut I digress. The main problem is that this is\u00a0badly-written, cliched stuff overall. And it\u2019s not-so-subtly aimed at the valuable work of the Church\u2019s culture warriors\u2013people who happen to think our \u201copinions\u201d on certain hot topics of the day actually\u00a0do\u00a0<\/em>matter. Sorry if the writers get all bent out of shape over the word \u201cwarrior,\u201d but I got a flash for them: Sometimes, saying \u201cpeace, peace\u201d when there is no peace is worse than useless.
\nConclusion:\u00a0<\/strong>The entire album may not be worth the investment, but there are some cherries to be picked on iTunes. If you love Wes\u2019s voice, \u00a0you might be pleased like I was to hear him get another chance to step into the solo spotlight. But also like me, you might wish you could hear it a little better. Listen to some samples and draw your own conclusions.\u00a0\u00a0I give it 3.5 stars.
\n[Update: 5\/6\/15: The link is broken and has been removed.]\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Out On a Limb is a wide-release re-packaging of Gaither Vocal Band tenor Wes Hampton\u2019s former table project\u00a0Reality. It is his second solo effort, following 2011\u2019s\u00a0A Man Like Me, which I first reviewed at Southern Gospel Journal here. Blending Wes\u2019s fresh, confident vocals with a batch of new songs from CCM hit-maker Sam Mizell and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3595,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-5-star","category-cd-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Out](\"https:\/\/i1240.photobucket.com\/albums\/gg500\/weshampton\/OOAL_Hampton_Cover_zps81203426.jpg\")
Out On a Limb<\/em> is a wide-release re-packaging of Gaither Vocal Band tenor Wes Hampton\u2019s former table project\u00a0Reality<\/em>. It is his second solo effort, following 2011\u2019s\u00a0A Man Like Me<\/em>, which I first reviewed at Southern Gospel Journal here<\/a>. Blending Wes\u2019s fresh, confident vocals with a batch of new songs from CCM hit-maker Sam Mizell and friends, it\u2019s sure to satisfy most die-hard Hampton fans. But will it satisfy fans of great music and songwriting? Does it satisfy me as a fan of all of the above? And does anyone else think the cover looks like\u00a0someone dropped a Land\u2019s End photo shoot in the middle of a Gustav Dore engraving<\/a>?![\"\"](\"http:\/\/uploads3.wikiart.org\/images\/gustave-dore\/the-inferno-canto-13.jpg\")