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JFH Music Review


Jadon Lavik, The Road Acoustic
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Jadon Lavik
The Road Acoustic



Artist Info: Discography
Album length: 11 tracks: 40 minutes, 36 seconds
Street Date: October 20, 2009


With three albums under his belt, California native Jadon Lavik has built himself quite a repertoire. Quickly, this newcomer to the CCM scene garnered elite radio attention, as well as the hearts and minds of his listeners. On his new project, entitled The Road: Acoustic, Lavik has collected eight original favorites, two new compositions, and an old classic to be stripped down and re-recorded as intimate acoustic pieces. Truly, it will not take fans of any musical genre long to discover that this is the way Lavik's music was meant to be heard.

Even as the first seconds of the opener "Hear Our Song" play out, it's obvious that Jadon Lavik knows exactly what he is doing. He makes the acoustic guitar sing, very rarely allowing distractions of other instruments. The new version of "Moving On Faith" includes some tasty guitar picking that would make even Jack Johnson jealous, and "Come Thou Font" is re-envisioned as a peppy pop ballad. "Come To Me" is a bit mellower with some well-placed slide guitar twang, and features a properly lo-fi instrumental epilogue in the next track. Lavik's premier single "What If" from his debut album is nearly unchanged, but the focus fortunately lands on his vocal talents. The dual set of new tracks wrap up the disc, "Mighty God" and "Surrender," both of which are sincerely heartfelt and inspirational.

In theory (and literally), The Road is nothing new. The eleven songs on the album are your typical acoustic pop, blended with a small helping of folk. And while the resulting creation can't quite hold a candle to Jon Foreman's solo work, or even Josh Wilson or Bebo Norman, it's a welcome upgrade.

Jadon Lavik is known for his popular worship sensibilities, but The Road takes his style in a new direction. Almost surprisingly, the acoustic recreation of some of his most popular tracks is exactly the element that may have been missing all along. Not to say that The Road is perfect-- a few of the selections land squarely in the "didn't-Jeremy-Camp-get-here-first?" category-- but it's sure to convert a few non-listeners to Lavik's music. While it may not necessarily be a good idea to run out and pick up his discography, the money spent on The Road will not go to waste.

- Review date: 1/28/10, written by Garrett DeRossett of Jesusfreakhideout.com



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JFH Staff's Second Opinion



Signed to BEC Recordings, Jadon Lavik has been a leading songwriter in the praise and worship scene in recent years. After two studio albums plus a hymns project, he released an all-acoustic album last Fall entitled The Road Acoustic. On one hand, I can admire the idea behind a project like this-- putting a new spin on previous work is an inherently novel concept, and a lot of artists benefit from these treatments. Lavik's contemporary pop musings when turned into all-acoustic work, however, doesn't necessarily make it much better; the change here isn't dramatic enough to command attention. In fact, one could even go so far as to say it's a little boring. Lavik knows how to pull off the acoustic sound relatively well, but when some songs don't feel changed much at all ("Come Thou Fount," "Father"), this severely lessens this album's potential appeal. This album probably would have benefitted from more new material, or condensing this album of all-previous-material into an EP. Most fans of Lavik have probably bought this album already as this review goes to press, and calling this a legitimately "bad" album would be an insult, but it's hard to deny that Lavik's latest outing is a potential waste of the listener's time. - Roger Gelwicks of Jesusfreakhideout.com

 

. Record Label: BEC Recordings
. Album length: 11 tracks: 40 minutes, 36 seconds
. Street Date: October 20, 2009
. Buy It: iTunes
. Buy It: Amazon.com

  1. Hear Our Song (4:01)
  2. Moving On Faith (4:14)
  3. Come Thou Font (3:18)
  4. Father (4:28)
  5. Come To Me (3:19)
  6. Come To Me End (1:20)
  7. On The Outside (3:52)
  8. What If (4:27)
  9. Wondrous Love (3:18)
  10. Mighty God (4:03)
  11. Surrender (4:23)

 

 

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