Kendall Payne - Jordans Sister (1999)

It's such a cliché to call any record a "stunning debut," but how else is one to respond to the first release by the frighteningly talented 19-year-old singer-songwriter Kendall Payne? Payne's music career is a fairy-tale success story: granted a third-stage gig at Lilith Fair's unsigned-acts showcase, she was offered soon thereafter a deal by Capitol Records and a song on the popular Never Been Kissed soundtrack. Payne's melodic, empowering songs deliver endearing there-are-big-problems-in-this-world-and-they-really-do-bother-me words that consistently avoid the banal trappings of her more cash-infused music-industry mates. The beautifully sung lyrics will appeal to most any teenager: they concern a teenage friend who lost her father, the societal pressures on women to look like supermodels, being compared with one's older sibling, and one's personal relationship with God. Payne's work fits easily into the late-'90s softer-sounding chick-with-a-guitar genre (Sixpence, Jewel) and displays a keen melodic sense (she wrote or cowrote all the songs), which, by any right, will bring future success. With a nondidactic yet powerful spiritual bent to the songs, Jordan's Sister will also please contemporary Christian music fans. --Mike McGonigal