bob_tomato's Full Review: Whispered and Shouted by Aaron Shust
Every so often, one of those recordings comes along, its sounds diving deep into my brain and circulating within my memory for weeks and weeks. Snippets of song will rise unbidden at seemingly random moments, phrases jostled out of the corners of my mind to begin looping in my head while I rush for the disc and my favorite headphones so I can listen to the song in full.
(...swirling electronics, a Foo Fighter-esque guitar hook, and a fast four rock tempo…)
There are always days when I don't feel like singin'
There are always days when I don't care at all
But I know the king of all creation reigns completely
Over every moment great and small
Long live the One who gives us
Life and peace and hope for tomorrow…
(and rock out on air guitar as more Fooey hooks are played…yeah!)
Aaron Shust's Whispered and Shouted is full of great moments like this - a solid offering of catchy contemporary Christian pop-rock that will have you listening to the album over and over. It's definitely one of those recordings that will have you pressing repeat on your CD player…
Released in June 2007 by Brash Music, Whispered and Shouted is a fantastic collection of up-tempo guitar rock, worshipful anthems and reflective ballads. CCM is notorious for repeating the success formula ad nauseam, yet there are those albums, like Whispered and Shouted, which follow the familiar pattern but do it so very well. Some listeners might dismiss it as being just like every other CCM pop-rock album of the last twenty years, but there's not a really bad or boring song to be found in this recording. With intriguing arrangements and performances, Whispered and Shouted deserves to be recognized as one of the finest recordings to be released this year.
Before I discuss the music, I really must mention the liner notes of this album. Each of the twelve tracks has two pages devoted to it in the insert - one page for the lyrics, the other for a lengthy personal story from Aaron about the song. Shust shares his inspirations for the songs, providing insight into the spiritual aspects of the lyrics as well. In fact, there are even Scripture references included within the lyrics themselves, allowing the listener to go check out the original inspiration for the songs for himself if he wishes. With the personal stories, the Scripture references, and the solid theology present in these lyrics, each song could be a mini-devotional for the interested listener.
You restore our lives even though we don't deserve it
And you've given us a love that's not our own (1 John 4:7)
You assemble all our broken, shattered pieces
More beautiful than I had ever known (Colossians 1:18-20)
(…Foo hook, chord, chord, and Foo, Foo, Foo - yeah!)
Yes, I do play that first track, Long Live the King, a lot. A lot. It's just so infectiously fun, I can't help but want to listen to it over and over. The Foo Fighter guitar hook is probably what caught my ear initially, but it's the buildup to the chorus in each verse that I keep listening for these days. It's so very Foo, but I'm not going to count this against Shust because it doesn't sound derivative; the song simply is what it is, and it works really well.
This is what still confounds me about this album even now - there are so many familiar elements in this recording that I know have been done before, but Whispered and Shouted never gets old, never failing to keep me interested each time I slip on those headphones…
The Name of Jesus sounds as if it could be "just another" Steven Curtis Chapman acoustic guitar number, gently swaying in all it's Franklin, Tennessee-style goodness, but combining Aaron's slightly gruff voice with an arrangement reminiscent of Caedmon's Call, and it adds up to something more than "just another" SCC radio hit…
Create Again starts with a Coldplay-like piano riff, but thankfully, the song takes a left turn into Chris Tomlin territory and becomes a strong worship anthem…
Come to Me would be right at home on David Crowder's Can You Hear Us? album, right down to the harmonica Aaron plays in between verses. It's the backing vocals by Rosie Iraheta, and the bass line played on a grand piano that set this song apart from other pretenders…
And yes, there are also original touches here and there that help to make this album stand out from others - I absolutely love the accordion and bells that open Can't Hide From Your Love, probably the strongest ballad in the entire project. The sudden, extremely abrupt stop of musical tones under each vocal phrase of the verses in Life Itself is jarring the first time you hear it, but it doesn't feel gimmicky, even after repeated listens. Most notable are the seamless transitions from each song to the next - this is a carefully programmed album, and the movement between songs is natural and easy.
And I think that is the key to the success of this album - everything may be familiar at first blush, but the more you listen - really truly listen - the more you come to appreciate the work that was put into making each song special, into making the entire album hold together as a whole project.
Aaron Shust's Whispered and Shouted is full of that wonderful, brain-infecting ear candy I so dearly love. I think that Shust's sophomore album is a strong contender for contemporary Christian album of the year. It's got the familiar elements you might expect from a Christian pop-rock album, but it isn't just another cookie-cutter imitation of preceding work by other artists. Whispered and Shouted is the work of an artist on the rise, coming into his own with strong, quality music that will please fans and critics alike.
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Aaron Shust - Whispered and Shouted
Released June, 2007 by Brash Music
Track Listing
Long Live the King / Like I Never Felt Before / Create Again / Watch Over Me / Give Me Words to Speak / Life Itself / The Name of Jesus / I Will Wait / Runaway / Can't Hide From Your Love / Come to Me / Worthy - Let All I Do
Striking the perfect balance between congregational worship and intimate expression of faith, Aaron Shust returns with his highly anticipated second a...More at Christianbook.com
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