CD Review: Nichole Nordeman 'Every Mile Mattered'

As you know this is primarily a book review blog, however on occasion I have opportunity to review other items. This time I am reviewing a CD by Nichole Nordeman.  While I have heard of Nichole Nordeman, I am not familiar enough with her to know any of her songs.  This CD was the first encounter with her for me.  

Just to preface this review, I am very much into music - particularly christian music and have toured extensively and have much experience in this field. I have studied songwriting also and understand the music industry.  So with this experience and knowledge I approach this album.

I started by listening through the album about four or five times and just had it playing in the background.  Then pulled

out the lyrics sheet and went through the lyrics.  The lyrics are very heartfelt and you can hear her heart and struggles through them.  I thought they were well written.  However the melodies selected for these lyrics, in my opinion, are lacking.  Like a lot of christian music - the album is very 'samey' - i.e. one song sounds like the next. Nothing really stands out and for me there were no memorable hook lines on the whole album. 

The vocals, while nice, are not stand out and are over produced as with most female vocals in christian music.  However that's not necessarily a negative as Nichole's voice is very pleasant and easy to listen to - unoffensive in any way.

The standouts for me were more negative, I'm sorry to say. The song 'Hush Hush' every time I heard it, just grated on me as did the song 'Slow Down'.  Now 'Slow Down' is a whole other level.  While the sentiment of the song is sweet having her child sing, it was not pleasant at all to listen to. I wish she had just put a tiny bit at the end to appease the sentiment, instead of making the whole song pretty much in a child's wavering voice.  I get why she did it, but for me it didn't work at all, the child's voice just wasn't smooth and easy to listen to and the tuning issues just constantly caused me to wince.  Also didn't like her version of U2s song either.

On the whole this album for me is very mediocre in terms of melody and music.  The lyrics are good but they can't stand alone unfortunately.  So I would have to say I do not recommend this album.  Very mediocre and as a first impression of Nichole Nordeman I'm not impressed enough to try any more of her music I don't think.

Please note that I was sent a copy of this CD for purposes of review, however all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

You can buy the album here or hear some of the songs if you are still interested.