After a half decade absence resulting from ill health and personal tragedy, LaShun Pace has happily released It's My Time, her first album on EMI Gospel Records and a nice reintroduction of this longtime favorite to Gospel audiences. Pace uses the opportunity to shape an album that clearly reflects her challenges over the past few years, essentially creating a thematic album around messages of patience, faith, strength and, ultimately, triumph.
The danceable, electronics-filled title cut (reminiscent of Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out") leads things off nicely, with Pace's ever-strong voice booming her personal return over a light disco beat. The rest of the disc alternates between more traditional Gospel numbers ("Emotions," "The Lord Will Make A Way" and "I Trust You"), dance cuts ("When I Worship You") and solid ballads ("You"). The disc may be at its best, though, on more modern sounding mid-tempos such as "Hey," "Cool Praise" and the album closer, "Through Her Eyes," a duet with Pace's daughter Aarion. Most impressively, Pace wrote the bulk of the material on the album, funneling her experiences of the past several years into a cohesive enjoyable disc that should please her longtime fans and should introduce her to a new audience. A welcome return of a very talented singer.
by Chris Rizik
