Vickie Winans has been making first-rate gospel records for almost 20 years. On
Bringing It All Together, her voice is as strong as ever, clear as a bell, and full of soul and grit. The lyrical content of the album is all gospel-based and
Winans sounds emotionally involved and quite convincing. Where the album stumbles is in the production. The album was mostly produced by
Vickie and members of the
Winans family (
Marvin L. Winans Jr. and Michael Winans) and it swings wildly from
Timbaland-styled rhythmic ballads like "For Everybody" to Latin jams like "Hasta la Vista" to adult contemporary ballads like "I Promise" to embarrassing dance tracks like "Amazing Grace Dance" and "Superman." When they try so hard to sound modern, they sound instantly dated. It is too bad they took such a classic gospel voice and dressed it up in cheap modern clothes. The record also features five remixes of tracks from the album, none of which are particularly exciting or even that different from the album versions. If you are a longtime fan of
Vickie Winans, no doubt you will want to pick this disc up just to hear her wonderful voice and will most likely be able to forgive the clunky production. ~ Tim Sendra