Review

Review: I received Martha Munizzi's CD in the mail about a month ago and quite frankly I didn't know what to expect. Even though she has a fairly memorable name, I hadn't heard of her. My suspicion is that she has just been under my "radar screen", because upon listening to her new CD, "The Best Is Yet To Come", I think that I have seen her on our local TBN station, half a dozen times as I have flipped through the channels. So for me this has been a great joy in discovering the music of Martha Munizzi.

The CD opens with a rousing song penned by Martha called "Lift Him Up". Not to be confused with the song sung by Ron Kenoly of the same title, this tune is a great opening song that could easily be used to open up a service at your church as well. I really appreciate the "little" things that make a song great. If you listen closely to this tune right at the 2:55 second point on your time indicator you will hear one of the sweetest chords, formed by a group of vocalists, that I have heard in a long time. It is a small thing, but very cool.

Another very strong song is "Glorious". You have probably heard in the not too distant past. It is another fabulous song written by Martha and delivered with an amazing amount of passion. The style of this song falls somewhere between Santana and Salvador and is most definitely "Latin" with great piano and horn section punches. The arrangements of these songs are absolutely top notch being produced by Israel Houghton and Aaron Lindsey. It was recorded at Israel's home church, Lakewood Church in Houston, with a congregation full of energetic folks.

The CD segues from there into the song, "Mighty God" that starts with a definite funk, retro from the late 80's, feel. It then breaks into a very powerful R & B feel over the chorus. Martha pulls these songs off effortlessly and they just feel right. Appropriately she includes a cover of Israel and Aaron's song, "Sing". We have been doing this song for quite a while at our church and it is a wonderful song with a lot of energy as well. As up-tempo and energetically as this CD starts out, there is also a softer side that is just as impressive. The song "I Will Always" is a wonderful song with a very singable melody. It is really only four lines long, but is extremely worshipful.

The second half of the CD takes a bit of a back seat to the first half in my opinion. In this day and age with the proliferation of worship music, it is hard to find a CD with more than one great song on it, let alone five or six. As phenomenal as the first half of the disc is, the second half came off as uninspiring to me. Maybe it is just me, but the songs, "I Know The Plans", "Your Latter Will Be Greater" and "New Season", as they are fit together, I found a bit difficult to get my heart around. There is a lot of energy in the performance of these songs, but probably due to my discomfort in the style in which they are presented, they just didn't work for me. Martha seems to make a transition in this section of the CD to more of a prophetic, preaching style of worship leading. It is obviously difficult to discern through a recorded project what was going on spiritually in the group that was gathered at Lakewood the night they recorded this CD. This could have been and probably was apropos to what God was doing that night. I guess what I am saying is that whatever was happening at the time, didn't translate in a way that I could get in touch with on the recording.

That critique aside, I highly recommend this CD. The musicianship is absolutely top rate and Martha's voice is extraordinary as well, as she sings through the stylistic journey of songs that are offered on "The Best Is Yet To Come". She is an incredibly gifted singer/songwriter. The songs on this disc are so singable, with a great balance between repetitive memorable choruses and inspiring verses. I could easily see our church incorporating five or six songs off of this CD.

Bryan Bloom