The Bottom Line
- Honest and powerful lyrics
- Not a single one
Description
- Style: Acoustic worship - the "Just you and God" kind
- Songs: 15
- Release Date: March 2006
Guide Review - Shawn McDonald - Ripen
This isn't an album that you can safely throw in as background music for your life, paying minimal attention to. Regardless of what you're doing the first time you listen to it, you'll find yourself paying attention and really listening because much like King David's writings in the Psalms, Shawn McDonald's words will touch you in places you'd long forgotten you still had. By the time "Reason" has finished playing, you're thinking about your own life. By the time the second interlude, "Ramblings Of A Beggar," is over, you're deeply introspective. Get to the end of track 15, "Lovely," and you're convinced that Shawn McDonald has put your deepest thoughts and yearnings to music - without ever meeting you. His voice cracks in the song and it's easy to imagine it's because he's swallowing back the same tears that you are.
It's really humbling to think of God's perfection and our own flaws ... and how despite them, or because of them, He sent His Son to die for us. Shawn McDonald just spent an afternoon reminding me of that. I'm grateful.
