Music Review: Take Over by Aaron Shust

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Upbeat praise music
Cons: None for me
The Bottom Line:
Things come together
For Aaron's best release yet
You need to get it




Aaron Shust Leads Us in Personal Worship with Take Over

Several years ago, I attended a concert where Aaron Shust was the opening act.  I wasn't crazy about the other two acts that night, but I loved Aaron.  I got his first CD that night and bought his second CD as soon as it came out.  I wasn't as enthusiastic about that one.  So I was a little worried about how I would react to Take Over, his third release.  I had nothing to worry about.  This is his best CD to date.

Aaron hails from Atlanta, where he works as a worship pastor when he's not pursuing his professional musician career.  That is evident in many of the songs on this disc.  I can picture quite a few of them being sung in churches across the country.  But they aren't all worship songs.  Musically, Aaron continues to hover in the pop/soft rock area of the musical spectrum, and area he knows well.

"To God Alone" sets a good early tone for the disc.  On the surface, it is a praise song, giving God the glory in everything.  But the verses give the song an extra kick.  The song is really a song of surrender, asking God to break us and use us for his Glory.  Think of it as a contemporary spin on the classic hymn "Take My Life."  This is upbeat and heavy on the drums and guitar.

"Come and Save Us" is the biggest surprise on the disc.  It is not only the rockiest song on this disc, but the rockiest song Aaron has every recorded.  It's got driving drums and screaming guitar.  As always, the lyrics are rock solid as Aaron sings about how much we need God to save us from sin.  "There's nothing we can do/Father we need You/To come and save us."

Ironically enough, my least favorite song on the disc is the title song.  As you might guess from the title, "Take Over" is a song of surrender to the God we can trust to lead us in the best path for us.  My problem with the song is how repetitive the chorus gets.  He hits the same three notes over and over again.  I am quite sure it was done on purpose since the lyrics talk about "I've been here over and over again."  But even this song is beginning to grow on me.

"Stars Will Fall" is an interesting praise song.  The verses talk about the trials of life.  But the chorus reminds us that at the name of Jesus, all nature trembles.  We've got power behind us.  It's a slower song with an equal mix of keyboard and guitar.

The next song really follows up thematically.  In fact, "Rest in the Arms" was an early favorite.  Again, the song talks about being weak in the verses, but the chorus reminds us to "Rest in the arms of "The One who knows you."  Piano rules the verses while guitar takes over for the chorus.  It's just on the slow side of mid-tempo and a song of great encouragement.

But my favorite song on the disc is "Ever After."  Written from a parent to a child, the parent is telling the child the truth about life, it is hard and there are no happily ever afters.  While it is taking on the fairy tale in general, it specifically mentions Peter Pan and Never Never Land.  It only hints at God and Heaven with lines like "We won't find our happy ever after here," but I picked up on the implied message right away.  That message made me smile right away.  The upbeat, hooky melody doesn't hurt matters, either.  I'd rate this as the song most likely to get stuck in your head.

"Still You Love Me" is back to soft rock.  In fact, it's the second fastest song here.  While it is a worship song, I consider it more of a personal song than a good corporate song.  Taking it's cue from Psalm 139, it marvels that God would love us and send Jesus to die for us even though He already knew all of our sins.  It's a very encouraging reminder.

The official disc closer is "When Everything is Beautiful."  The chorus is taken almost word for word from Isaiah 1 and God's promise to make our sins white as snow.  The verses are repentance at their truest form, asking God to forgive the singer once again.  Again, the pronouns are all first person single, making this a worship song that seems more suited for an individual than a congregation to me.  We've got another upbeat guitar based song here.

Even though the back of the CD package and the booklet only talk about 11 songs, there are actually 12.  "Carry Me Home" is an acoustic track.  It's just Aaron and his guitar singing about his longing to be in Heaven.

And speaking of the booklet, this is a CD to buy a physical copy of.  The booklet is quite thick and includes not only the lyrics but also Aaron's thoughts about writing each song.  It brings the songs to life in a new way to read all the notes.

Take Over is an impressive release from Aaron Shust.  I know I will be enjoying it for a long time to come.

CD Length: 43:34

Tracks:

1. To God Alone

2. Come and Save Us

3. Forevermore

4. Take Over

5. Stars Will Fall

6. Rest in the Arms

7. Live to Lose

8. Ever After

9. Still You Love Me

10. Breathe in Me

11. When Everything is Beautiful

12. Carry Me Home