Different Lifestyles

On Different Lifestyles, BeBe and CeCe Winans employ hip-hop, R&B, jazz and soul sounds to impart their messages of faith and worship; they even bring in rapper Hammer as well as Mavis Staples (for a cover of the 1972 hit "I'll Take You There") for more crossover appeal. It's this same pandering to mainstream tastes that sinks the record; the Winans' spiritual messages simply don't jibe in these secular and pop-oriented settings, and come off stilted and shallow. — Jason Ankeny.