A reissue of
Kim Burrell
's 1997 debut album with a different and better cover photo and a previously unreleased bonus track,
"Magnify Him,"
recorded during the album's sessions,
Try Me Again
shows how fully formed
Burrell
's unique
gospel
style was even at the beginning of her career. Beginning with its soulful opener,
"Prayer Changes Things,"
which has the jazzy, mellow feel of an early
Roberta Flack
side,
is that rarity, a
album more dependent on gentle understatement than revival tent fervor. Even on the most impassioned tracks, like the choir-supported
"Home,"
sings with easy grace, never over-souling her songs with unnecessary melisma or other grating vocal tics, and her production emphasizes rootsy, old-school instrumentation instead of the glossy synths that have crept into so many
CCM
albums. All in all,
is a sensational debut that matches
's better-known later albums and deserves a wider profile. ~ Stewart Mason