Reviewed by Gareth Hills

The San Francisco songsmith's stripped-back, unplugged EP, originally released in 2001, was recorded as "a personal response to the popularity of 'worship' music as a genre" and "the simplicity of the recording is intended to highlight the human side of faith". It's very much a 3am listening-in-your-bedroom sort of album, such is the song's space, honesty and devotional nature. The EP starts rather abruptly with guitar and vocal entering simultaneously, but things soon get settled down as the McRoberts, accompanied by his guitar, and sparse touches of piano, charts a lyrical course through the challenges of life and faith. The opener "Learning to Live" is a raw heart-cry for more of Jesus, while "Making Noises" deals with the desire to be utterly honest and broken before God, instead of simply sounding like you are. McRoberts is skilled in his ability to take a good look at the issues Christians face in the day-to-day, and express them in an honest, non-preachy way. However, perhaps limited by the time constraints of the EP format, he doesn't seem to delve as deeply into these issues as he maybe could, but he certainly achieves his purpose of creating a raw, devotional collection of worship songs. Definitely a CD to stick with and to let permeate your heart and mind in the quiet places of your day-to-day life.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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