Description
Back to Who I Am is the third solo album by former Imperials lead vocalist Paul Smith, released on DaySpring Records in 1989, a division of Word Records. The album was produced, recorded, and mixed by Jonathan David Brown. Arranged by Joe Hogue.
All former Imperials singers carry a thing around with them for a few years – not an albatross, mind you – more like a family heirloom of which one is both proud and yet reluctant to continually display. Even Russ Taff, the most successful of the ex-Imps., was “Russ Taff: Former lead singer of the Imperials” for the first few years of his solo career. It’s taken a few years for the public to appreciate Paul Smith sans Armond and Company, too, but with ‘Back to Who I Am’, Smith might finally be ready to come into his own.
Jonathan David Brown hasn’t produced rockin’ male vocalists like Smith since his days with Petra, and you can feel the energy that he puts into this project, energy he must have stored up while chompin’ on the rock and roll bit for a couple of years. Arrangements are crisp and clean; the upbeat tunes pulse ever onward with verve, and the ballads slow the pace down without bringing the music to a state of melancholia or ennui.
But it is Smith’s honest, straight-from-the-heart lyrics that separates ‘Back to Who I Am’ from his two previous releases. Calls to righteousness predominate. «Hunger and Thirst» states, “It’s a far cry from where I began/ But it’s farther still to the man I should be from the man that I am.” The allusion-filled «The Lion’s Roar» takes a firm stand one the issue of temptation in the Christian life, the most honest musical approach to this tough subject since Amy’s «Walk Away With You». An the title cut sums up the lyrical focus of all ten tracks: “Oh the simple faith I used to have I know you long to see/ From my land of compromise you’re calling me.”
Of Smith’s vocal intensity and range (he nails C’s and C#’s throughout) there was never any question, and now, with ‘Back to Who I Am’, Smith proves he can hang with the MWS‘ and the Russ Taffs of the Christian music scene. [Warren Anderson, CCM, March 1989]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/back-to-who-i-am/1167819226)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Back To Who I Am” – 5:36
A2. “Beat Of A Different Heart” – 5:17
A3. “Bigger Than Life” – 5:31
A4. “Silence Isn’t Golden Anymore” – 6:08
A5. “Homesick For Eden” – 4:47
Side Two
B1. “The Lion Roars” – 5:15
B2. “It’s Alright” – 5:21
B3. “Comforter” – 4:44
B4. “Hunger And Thirst” – 5:01
B5. “So Satisfied” – 4:44
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD by DaySpring Records.
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