There’s been a lot of interesting CCM coming out of the underground over the past summer, but as far as talented singers are concerned, I don’t know that the genre has many players on the indie level that can stand up to the potency of one Christina Morgan-Diaz this September. Morgan-Diaz’s new single “You Are” has a lot of oomph where similar tracks have fallen short on the sonic depth scale, but as much as I could spend an entire article lauding the skillset she has as a studio artist, she’s got even more going for her as a songwriter.
The stirring groove here keeps our attention focused on the pace of the music as opposed to the cadence of the lyrics, which allows our singer to be a little more fluid and freeform with her delivery than she would have been able to in another scenario. She arranged this track specifically to give herself a bit more breathing room against the beat than was even necessary, but it doesn’t translate as overindulgence because of the way she uses the excess she’s got. It’s empowering and complements the Christian lyricism all too perfectly to have been done any differently, as I see it.
Although the hook in this song has a bit of a sting to it, there’s no denying the brilliance of the climax here. Morgan-Diaz isn’t reserved in her unleashing the most exciting moment of “You Are,” and it’s her confidence that winds up making this part of the track as magnetic as it is. It would be interesting to hear a straight acoustic version of this song in the future for a number of different reasons, chief among them being an opportunity to appreciate how much of its power is coming from the singer and the singer alone.
After listening to her new single, Christina Morgan-Diaz has a sound that is all her own and I have a feeling that this is just a taste of what she can do when she’s really feeling the energy of the recording studio. She has some degree of vocal depth that she’s not fully utilizing, but it’s early on enough in her career that it’s obvious that she still is in the process of evolving. “You Are” is an excellent introduction to who she is, and it absolutely shows off an authenticity that I could get used to as both a fan and a critic.
