Seize the storm

This is the second album by Seattle-based Shawn McDonald.  His previous album, Simply Nothing, has seriously come close to wearing out anything I’ve played it on.  I absolutely love Simply Nothing and no other cd has gotten played more - wherever I go.  Every song on it is amazing.  I really do suggest this record, I even requested another copy of it on my Christmas list last year.  I knew it would be so very hard to compete with Simply Nothing with this release of Ripen…

The Review

Shawn takes on a different sound in this album.  He shows he’s willing to experiment and try different things.  There’s a cello in the background that just goes insane sometimes (in a good way).  His lyrics, in keeping with Simply Nothing, are very deep.  They bare his soul and from the music and his words, you can tell that it’s not about him singing music to fit a certain genre or listener, but just him singing his heart out to God and giving Him all the praises.  Shawn talks a lot about the second coming and how he’s looking forward to it.  One of the highlighted songs about this is The Rider on the White Horse.  The way they pulled off the sound (which I have no idea how they did) is awesome.  You can almost hear the hoof steps as the horse gallops.  He also speaks about freedom in Christ and needing Christ in his life every moment of everyday, basically filling his cup daily.  He also has a nice love song to his new wife, Kate McDonald who is Bethany Dillon’s sister.  I like that Shawn is trying some new things out and go with some different sounds.  He has a couple songs on the new record that sound a lot like the flow of Simply Nothing, which is basically more of what I like.  Some of the songs were a little slow or a bit repetative, or had some really funky sounding notes to it.  One of the songs he recorded while he was sick and though you can tell he’s straining, it really sounds good.

Favorite tracks: Free, Salvation, Pour Out, and Imago(an instrumental song), Home

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - It just couldn’t stand up to the awesome-ness of Simply Nothing.  I think this was his learning record as he had to learn how to write his songs on a schedule.  Look forward to the next one