State of Grace III

The chant craze has been over for a decade, but Paul Schwartz continues with his State of Grace project, setting Latin texts and hymns to modern settings. On the third album in the series, he leads with his strong suit, the powerful, impassioned voice of Lisbeth Scott. She's been the featured singer with State of Grace since the first album, which no doubt led to her being the voice of John Debney's score to The Passion of the Christ. Over a chugging electronica beat, she intones the Latin hymn "Christe Redemptor" like a plea to a lost lover, recalling her performance on "Veni Redemptor Gentium" from the first CD. Scott shines throughout the album, including on the urgent plea of "To You" and the Abbess Hildegard-like strains of "Somnium." Schwartz has a good ear for the ancient, but perhaps it's beginning to sound antique even to him. That may be why the album sounds like such a hodgepodge of neo-gothic pop-classical romanticism. There are orchestral opuses ("Lux Aeterna") and a piano-violin duet ("Soledad"), gospel hymns ("Beams of Heaven") and pop songs that wouldn't sound out of place on a Celine Dion album ("Center of My Heart"). It tends to undermine his initial concept without providing a breakthrough into something new. --John Diliberto