I’ve been listening to a lot of Christian music lately. Not through choice I would hasten to add but more because that’s the way the reviewer God seems to have planned it. Emily Maguire’s seventh album “A Light to Follow” isn’t actually a Christian album yet it has more elements of spirituality in its thirteen songs than the aforementioned music of worship.
Emily Maguire’s voice, as always, steers a course between poise and emotion and she skilfully weaves between both reefs and shallows in her musical journey. There is an all pervading fragility to this album that is not in any way disguised by the commercial potential of many of these songs and, whilst always sounding mellow and more than somewhat wistful, the lack of metaphorical obfuscation in her lyrics ensures that she has no trouble in getting her point across.
It is also fair to say that this album is reflective by default yet “A Light To Follow” does not seem unduly introspective and perhaps that it Emily Maguire’s true appeal. She has the maturity to avoid floating in a sea of acoustic melancholy and, with practised ease, she therefore maintains the illusion of direct artist to audience communication. I wouldn’t be surprised if some might even find spiritual value or maybe even inspiration in this album. I would like to think so anyway.