Description
Lovin’ the Day is the debut album by the American R&B/urban pop trio Out of Eden (sisters Lisa, Andrea, and Danielle Kimmey), released on Gotee Records in March 1994, distributed by Myrrh Records, a division of Word. The album was recorded by David Hall and Joe Baldridge and was produced and arranged by The Gotee Brothers (a.k.a. Joey Elwood, Todd Collins, and Toby McKeehan). Mixed by Hall, Baldridge, and The Gotee Brothers. The album peaked at No. 10 on the Contemporary Christian music chart. It includes a cover of the Bill Withers classic “Lovely Day”.
Gotee Records began as a production company and Lovin’ the Day was the launch album as well as the catalyst for the creation of the record label. The founders – Toby McKeehan (a.k.a. TobyMac of dc Talk), Todd Collins, and Joey Elwood – had wanted to produce the album, but after not being able to find a record label to sign the act to, they formed Gotee Records and began distributing the band’s material on their own.
With the bass, beats and singing of much new-jill swing comes little innocence. Where to go for unblemished fun to feed your soul and groove receptors both? The way is Out of Eden.
The last DC Talk tour showed a glimpse of the trio. Talker Toby McKeehan‘s discovery of sisters Lisa, Andrea and Joy Kimmey, collectively Out of Eden, fills a teen pop niche with the real teenagers the Kimmeys are.
The girls’ video and radio hit cover of Bill Withers’ (via S.O.U.L. System) «Lovely Day» paved the path with its devotional wistfulness and insinuating synth mode.
McKeehan and his Gotee Brothers Joey Elwood and Todd Collins keep Out of Eden conscious equally of soul history and current trends. The Kimmeys themselves just have to be their fun-lovingly feminine selves, and it’s on.
More along the likes of «Lovely» comes in the quicker step of «Heart of Hearts» and «Come and Take My Hand». «There is A Love» could be a beat ballad theme for the True Love Waits program’s call for virginity until marriage. Even at their sultriest («Force Like This»), Out of Eden rightly questions whether the romantic force they feel is the Lord.
Where «Force» runs with flute and strings like a ‘Shaft’ film soundtrack, the Gotees take the Edenites to full-tilt disco on «Good Thing», horns, drum fills and all. Slowing down a ways are the equally potent thump od Joy’s rap interlude and «Gotee’s Groovin’».
The involvement of other Gotee folk like jazz rappers G.R.I.T.S., John Painter (of Fleming & John), and DC Talk bassist Otto Price gives the impression of a happy, musical family, like Motown at its peak of influence. Out of Eden are poised to impact about as hard, and those yearning for sanctified street soul will be ‘Lovin’ the Day’ they tear the shrink wrap from this debut. [Jamie Lee Rake, CCM, October 1994]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/lovin-the-day/1533114849)
CD tracklist:
01. Lovely Day – 4:51
02. Come & Take My Hand – 3:52
03. Show Me – 3:44
04. 3 Bro’s W / No Fro’s (Interlude) – 1:20
05. Good Thing – 3:51
06. Gotee’s Groovin’ – 4:47
07. Bandwagon – 4:17
08. There Is A Love – 5:12
09. Joy (Interlude) – 1:00
10. Heart Of Hearts – 3:37
11. A Friend – 4:02
12. Force Like This – 3:49
13. Lovely Vibe (Interlude) – 1:27
14. Gotee’s Groovin’ (Drumapella) – 4:05
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Gotee Records.
A full-page advertisement for the newly established Gotee Records label was featured in the February 1995 issue of CCM Magazine.
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