Closer To You

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2002

Label: Light Records

Gary Oliver's Closer to You is a collection of contemporary gospel with positive themes and Oliver's occasionally over-evocative singing. The album's marked by great vocal harmonies, despite the skeletal production and a pronounced lack of songwriting imagination. "Turning It Over" and "I Saw the Lord," two tracks produced by Fred Hammond, couldn't be more different in sound and execution; the former sounds like a piece of early-'80s studio sap, while the latter pumps up the energy with mechanistic percussion, synthesized horns, and a large backing chorus. Though it's clear his heart is in the right place,
Review by John Bush