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CD Review: Mitch Fewell's "InDependence EP" |
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Written by Candice Leigh Helfand
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Tuesday, 27 June 2006 |
 Not even 5 seconds after I put the CD into my computer and it began to play, I was won over. As I continued to listen, I found myself thinking, “Wow!” over and over again.
Though, it makes sense; the blend achieved from singing with yourself can’t be beaten.
Mitch Fewell’s “InDependence EP” shows this off with aplomb. Fewell’s impressive range and smooth, easy tone makes for some great listening, excellent blending, and some truly wonderful, and might I add, earnest solo work.
Two of the songs that really stood out to me were the more “choral” numbers (“O Sacred Head” and “Remember Me”) stood out to me, and brought me back to my choral roots, and in a good way; under my deep-running love of contemporary a cappella, lays my choral-nerd foundation. And apart from feeling they sounded a tad mechanical at times, I was a happy camper, treated to beautifully tight, blended choral harmonies.
The other major stand-out to me was “Change the World”; it made for a great opener in every way. I liked the arrangement, the solo showed off Fewell’s voice wonderfully, and it drew me right into his music and made me want more.
I found “I Don’t Care” to be kind of empty as far as arrangements go (and the speaking voice in the middle startled me quite a bit). The same goes for “I Know You Know”.
One over-all qualm I had, and this may be largely due to my personal preference for harder-hitting a cappella, but I could have used more oomph from the percussion, and just a little more in the way of dynamics for the background vocals. I understand that the tone/mood of the songs do not necessarily call for thumping beats, but if you’re going to have percussion, I prefer that it have more “meat” to it, more bass, and maybe a little less on the high-end stuff.
The best song I can think of to exemplify what I mean is “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”; while it’s a fun, simple jazzy groove, I would have liked hearing a more involved percussion line, and some background swells, that could have taken a fun and engaging arrangement and made it into a big, celebratory CD closer.
But, as someone who spent my pre-teens using two old audio cassettes, and switching them over and over, and getting frustrated over losing generations of quality with each layer, a project like this finds a place in my heart, and makes it feel warm and happy to hear a successful, clean, and over-all VERY entertaining product based off of one person’s hard work and great vocal range/tone.
I absolutely encourage people to pick this album up and take a listen to it themselves. And also, if I may be so bold as to suggest this, given the religious sentiments, it may make a nice change-up to the traditional Christmas albums people have in their homes? Just a thought.
Kudos to Mitch Fewell on a great piece of work! www.mitchfewell.com for more info.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 August 2006 )
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