Carmen D’Arcy

The adjective that best describes Carmen D’Arcy’s debut praise and worship album, A Place Called Grace, is ‘wholesome.’ The compositions are good, the pop arrangements satisfactory, but the defining flavor that overrides everything else on the menu is D’Arcy’s voice itself, which has a clean, sweet tone without a trace of blues or grit; she could sing ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ and it would come out vanilla bean wholesome.

D’Arcy, worship leader and choir director for a mega-church outside of Indianapolis, has an extensive musical background that includes studying songwriting at Anderson University under the direction of Gloria Gaither. As co-writer/writer of all tracks except “You’re Beautiful,” she successfully walks the tightrope between singability and ingenuity, injecting easy melodies with different flavors and tempos, including both keyboard and guitar-based compositions. D’Arcy has an excellent sense what makes a tune easy to learn and sing.

The lyrics on this record are above average. “To Your cross I’ll run / To Your cross I’ll cling / Seeking Your compassion merciful on me / Daily do I try, daily do I fail / Truly I am mystified why You took the nails” (”A Place Called Grace.”) “So may I fade and hide away / Let the brilliance of Your glory stay” (” Fade.”) “The way Your love disarms my soul / The way Your mysteries unfold / I stand in awe / I long to gaze on all You are for all my days.” (”You’re Beautiful.”) “You’re Beautiful” is such a lovely piano ballad, so perfectly suited to D’Arcy’s voice, you can almost forgive the use of “beautiful,” the most overused, cliche adjective in the history of songdom. (Somebody, please. Get thee to a thesaurus.)

Unfortunately, D’Arcy’s lead sheet for “We Adore Thee (God of Glory)” doesn’t credit lyrics that have been around forever; one Web site attributes them to Joseph Addison in 1712. “The spacious firmament on high / With all the blue ethereal sky / And spangled heavens shining frame / Their great origins proclaim / Unwearied sun from day to day / Puts all creation on display / And publishes to every land the work of the almighty hand.” (”We Adore Thee (God of Glory)”) Nobody writes lyrics like that any more.

Although most songs on A Place Called Grace share the verse/chorus/bridge structure typical of the worship genre, there’s enough range of style and instrumentation to keep the songs from melting into one giant praise pancake. From the train-track energetic “God, You Reign” to the jazzy, whimsical “Wondrous Love” to the poetic, meandering “Fade,” these songs have personalities distinct from one another. However, all the compositional and instrumental diversity in the world can’t unweave the CD’s wholesome fabric. Not even the injection of a soulful male harmony (a technique used by Twila Paris) on “We Adore Thee (God of Glory)” or “Holy Is Our God” can undo the sucrose purity of D’Arcy’s voice.

A Place Called Grace is a solid contemporary worship CD with fresh, congregationally-friendly songs that lean towards the hymnal/choir side of the church pews. It’s a simple equation: if you like D’Arcy’s voice and like pop praise, you’ll like the album.

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