Tramaine
The fact that this extraordinary gospel singer recently had a No. 1 dance hit with Fall Down should have been a tip-off that someone's been in the kitchen with Tramaine. She and her new pop producer, Robert Wright, have been cooking up something deliciously funky. The Search Is Over, Tramaine's third solo album, is a radical departure in style. The lyrics are still devout, with more biblical references than most of us will hear in a month of Sundays. But Wright, in addition to writing or co-writing most of the songs, has also furnished some hip, lively arrangements. Tramaine's voice is soaring and passionate on these hot numbers, as well as on the more traditional, stately gospel of the title cut. The highlight of the album, Everybody Ought To Know, with Tramaine's husband, Walter Hawkins, on piano, is the most jubilantly inspirational song since the Edwin Hawkins Singers' Oh Happy Day in 1969. You don't have to be born again to enjoy this exalting, exciting music. (A & M)
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