Daddy Ray is a UK-based inspirational singer-songwriter and producer who formed the group God’s Mind, Body & Spirit.’ This is his first instrumental album, and it speaks of a typical Christian’s journey from even before receiving Christ as Lord of their life. From the Joy of their relationship with Him, the highs and the lows, the struggles and mountaintop experiences. Ray says; “Yes it can also relate to any and every individual’s personal experience, but it has the addition element of walking through life with and in a relationship with Christ”. The album begins with a smooth track called ‘What Is It (Exodus 16:15).’ It’s a mid-tempo number that features some nice guitar work, over musical rhythms and percussion. Throughout the album, Ray shows his production skills with various instruments which, I think, are a mixture of real and keyboard created sounds. For instance, ‘Breakthrough’ has a funky organ sound that helps to make the track very bright and breezy in style. ‘The Race’ does, actually, race along, while ‘The Yoke’ is a little bit of a plodder, in pace. Going along with Ray’s description of how these tracks tell of a Christians’ journey, I found it a little tricky, at first, to really get my head around the idea. However, the light bulb moment came when I considered just each individual title and how to relate it to the overall feel of the sound I was listening to. That seemed to make more sense to me, and the joyful sound of ‘Walking with Him’ is a prime example of this working perfectly. There’s a feel of reggae rhythms, with some steel drum and brass sounds. This soon became my favourite track! Similarly, ‘No Limits’ is jubilant in its interpretation of the wonder of God’s love and the great things He can do. With this release, Ray adds another string to his bow, complete with God-given production gifts. A nice, thoughtful, instrumental album. 7/10.
Never for Nothing 