Aled Jones - Reason To Believe (2007)

One would never guess that Reason to Believe was an Aled Jones album, after all, wasn't he the choir boy with the angelic soprano voice singing the sorts of songs one would hear regularly on Songs of Praise or other religious television programs? Well, yes he was, but even choir boys grow up, and Jones shows a maturity in his voice on Reason to Believe that is both surprising and pleasant. There were still the religious overtones on tracks such as "Hallelujah," "All My Trails Lord," "Be Still My Soul," and "Whenever God Shines His Light," which was the only up-tempo track among of a sea of ballads, but the rest of the album was a mix of non-religious originals and cover versions. He duets with Cerys Matthews on "Some Kind of Wonderful," and Gretchen Peters joined him on the opening track "No Frontiers." Unlike both the original Cat Stevens and the Boyzone cover version of "Father and Son," he doesn't bother differentiating his voice between the two viewpoints. When he sings a beautiful original ballad like "Angel" or "Always There," one is left wondering why he felt the need to record inferior cover versions of David Gates' "If," Bette Midler's "The Rose," and James Taylor's "You've Got a Friend." His version of the title track is closer to the Glen Campbell version than the more famous Rod Stewart recording, but then it really would be too much to ask Aled Jones to sound like the biggest gravel-voiced crooner of all.