Music Review: Whispered and Shouted by Aaron Shust

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: "Long Live the King" and "Give Me Words to Speak"

Cons: "Like I Never Felt Before," songs blend together

The Bottom Line:

Alone, they are good

But combined they're rather bland

His weakest release

The Dreaded Sophomore Slump

When I found Aaron Shust's debut CD, I fell in love with it. I freely admit that parts of it didn't stand out from much else on the Christian market at the time. But I truly enjoyed most of the songs. Unfortunately, that can't be said about his second release, Whispered and Shouted.

I really did try to give this CD a chance. When it was obvious that I didn't love it right away, I set it aside, pulling it out every so often, to see if my opinion changed. It just hasn't.

Now don't misunderstand, there are still some good songs here. It's just a case of the entire CD being less then its parts.

For example, I absolutely love the first track. "Long Live the King" opens things up on the rock side of the pop/rock equation that dominates the album. It's got strong guitar and drums, yet it still opens quietly with the verses before getting much louder for the chorus. The lyrics are at once a praise chorus and a reminder that we only exist because God sustains us.

Fans of the first disc will recognize "Give Me Words to Speak," or at least the chorus. A few lines from the chorus opened his debut. At the time the song was unfinished. Between discs, Aaron has finished it. It's become a great prayer of surrender and humility and easily my favorite track on the disc. It starts as a quiet piano ballad but grows rockier as the song progresses.

"I Will Wait" has a bouncy pop feel. I can easily picture it being sung Sunday mornings at church services. Equally Sunday ready is "The Name of Jesus." While slower, its focus on praising the Trinity would make it a good modern hymn.

He's got two sides to the prodigal coin in back to back songs. "Runaway" is actually written from God's point of view. In the song, He promises to come find us no matter how far we run. "Can't Hide from Your Love" is our realization of that promise. While the first is a rock song, this is a much slower confessional piece. The melody is haunting and I love the first lines of the chorus "You're everything I ever wanted/And never knew I needed."

"Come to Me" is taken word for word from Matthew 11. It's got the simplest music of the disc with just guitar most of the time. Aaron plays the harmonica between repetitions of the lyrics.

There are a couple tracks that don't work for me. "Like I Never Felt Before" finds Aaron trying to do a rock/rap/hip hop type thing. I'm not a fan of that style of music, so naturally I don't care for this song.

"Worthy/Let All I Do" closes the disc on a weird note. I think part of my problem is that there are too few lyrics crammed into the 5 minute track. Based on Revelation 4 and 5, it basically repeats the praise of the Lamb from that passage over and over again. But the song has some weird programming to it that just doesn't work for me.

My biggest problem with the disc however, is that the songs all blend together. Now part of that is on purpose. If you listen carefully, you'll find that they tried hard to bridge each song. There is hardly any pause between the songs. This is especially noticeable in the first four tracks, but they often tried to create little bridges between songs where ever they could.

The problem comes when I try to listen to this CD straight through. I find very few of the songs stand out to me when listened to together. After one or two songs, my ear stops listening. A few of the tracks catch my ear no matter what else is happening, but they are the exception to the rule.

With only a couple exceptions, I don't dislike the songs on Whispered and Shouted. They just don't grab me the way that Aaron Shust's first release did.

CD Length: 55:13

Tracks:

1. Long Live the King

2. Like I Never Felt Before

3. Create Again

4. Watch Over Me

5. Give Me Words to Speak

6. Life Itself

7. The Name of Jesus

8. I Will Wait

9. Runaway

10. Can't Hide From Your Love

11. Come to Me

12. Worthy/Let All I Do