Title: "Beautiful Day"
Description: Kristen Roller
Chadley - April 7, 2007 12:12 AM (GMT)
Artist Name: Kristen Roller
Website: www.rollerministries.com
Album Title: “Beautiful Day”
Song Titles:
1. Beautiful Day
2. He Will Carry You
3. Leaning On The Everlasting Arms
4. Refreshing Rain
5. Sing
6. Movin’ On
7. Potter’s Hand
8. The Gospel
9. I Thank You Lord
10. You Amaze Me
Kristen Roller is a soloist based out of Fayetteville, NC. She is a teacher by trade and is a member of Fayetteville Community Church. However, for the last several years, she has been involved in leading praise and worship at Shoreline Baptist Church in Southport, NC. She is a recording artist for Pillar Music Group in Wilmington, NC, and she also sings in the Pillar ensemble and the Wilmington Celebration Choir.
“Beautiful Day” is Kristen’s first project, having been recorded in December of 2005. The cover of the album shows you a clear picture of Kristen with some beautiful North Carolina scenery behind her. The album contains 10 songs, each with a wonderful message.
Now, let’s take a look at each of the songs.
Opening the album is the title track, “Beautiful Day”. It’s an upbeat song that immediately became one of my favorites. Kristen has a strong voice in the second soprano/first alto range, and it is evident that she has had vocal training. The tempo slows down a little bit for the next song, the familiar “He Will Carry You”. This song gives Kristen the opportunity show what she can do with a slightly “softer” song that still has some “power” moments, and her vocals are smooth and pleasant to listen to.
Song #3 is a medium-tempo arrangement of the hymn “Leaning On The Everlasting Arms”. The arrangement contains some nice piano and organ licks with some brass thrown in for good measure, and the choir background gives it a nice overall feel. This is another “power” song that lets Kristen show the strength of her voice. “Refreshing Rain” is the fourth song, and it is a slower ballad-type song that lets us see how Kristen interprets those types of songs. The ending chord of this song is not the root chord in the song’s key, and it sounds a bit strange for the arrangement to end that way.
The fifth song is simply titled “Sing”. It’s a medium-tempo song that, with the choir background, reminds you of something that you would hear from a large church choir on a Sunday morning. This leads into Song #6, the upbeat “Movin’ On”. This song is another of my favorites on this album, as Kristen’s voice is strong and clear. Kristen slows the tempo down considerably for the seventh song, “Potter’s Hand”. Here Kristen utilizes her upper range a bit more than on the previous songs.
Song #8 is another ballad-type song with some brass in the arrangement. “The Gospel” is another song that will be familiar to many people, and once again we hear Kristen singing more in her upper register. The tempo speeds up for “I Thank You Lord”, the 9th song. If I had to guess, I would say that this upbeat style of song with a choir background is one of Kristen’s favorite types to sing. She seems to be having fun on these types of songs.
The album closes with a smooth ballad entitled, “You Amaze Me”. Kristen has a very smooth voice that fits this song almost perfectly, and a slower song is the perfect choice with which to end this particular album.
I was impressed with the strength and quality of Kristen’s voice. She is never off pitch, and her tones are clear and powerful. I actually think that she is at her best on the medium-tempo songs and ballads- they just seem to fit her voice perfectly. She does very well on the upbeat songs as well, but there’s one thing that I noticed during those songs that I have noticed in some others who have had vocal training. Kristen has a tendency to very clearly enunciate her words, and this can be a challenge on songs of a faster tempo. This is not in any way a criticism, for I am very much in favor of vocal training for singers. I just think that, due to this, her strengths lie more in the ballads and medium-tempo songs.
Overall, I think that this was a very good album. It’s evident that Kristen has worked hard to have good quality vocals, and I am sure that anyone who listens to this album will receive a tremendous blessing from it. Without hesitation, I give this album a rating of 4 out of 5 microphones!
Personal Favorites: “Beautiful Day”, “He Will Carry You”, “Movin’ On”, and “You Amaze Me”