Album: Sharecropper’s Seed Volume 1
Artist: Nicole C Mullen
Label: Word
Sounds like: Crystal Lewis, Brooke Fraser

This is a conceptual album of sorts; mostly stripped back and not unlike Brooke Fraser, which adds to what seems to be a very personal album. Nicole taps into black musical history to create her understated melodies. “So in love” is like a swaggering African chant, with the vocals backed by just percussion and bass, and “Fall” is a rockingly swelling swoon. But she returns again and again to basic acoustic guitar and strings so the melodies become like lullabies. Indeed, the album closes with just that (“Baby love”), wrapping up the album’s theme of the deep love God provides in families. About the only downside is that, over the course of the album, all these simple, beautiful melodies seem to repeat and become a bit sleep inducing.

Nick's Rating: 3/5