Album: Ripen
Artist: Shawn McDonald
Label: EMI
Sounds like: Damien Rice, Jars of Clay

“Take my hand” from Shawn’s “Simply Nothing” album showed that you could mix gentle acoustic with infectious rhythm, but “Ripen” tends toward a flat, feature-less plain, picturesque in its own quiet way, but lacking something.
As when someone views the landscape from an air-conditioned car, that something could be a commitment to ditching the technology and getting amongst it. There are obvious folk and country touches here, but they work better when Shawn doesn’t attempt to give them a modern sheen. There are simple melodies (a legacy as much from the current dominance of worship music as Americana) such as “Reason,” but they are often backed by electronic droplets and misty synthesizer fogs that, bearing the song skywards, are meant to provide a “worshipful” feel, but actually suggest the melodies can’t simply stand on their own (which is not necessarily the case).
This simplicity is improved upon—ripened, if you will—when honed, as on “Pour out” or “Confess.” The former starts with distinctive finger-picked acoustic guitar, and Shawn uses the old worldly spiritual trope “your words are a lamp unto my feet” and other old-fashioned imagery to ground the song. “Confess” is a basic, two-chord love song that could’ve appeared on Jars of Clay’s recent albums, with minimal percussion, rattling acoustic guitar and campfire singalong vocals. Such a rustic, acoustic setting suits the tradition of the Church, particularly the Southern American type of church.
While there is this simple warmth, there are also moody soundscapes like Damien Rice’s “Blower’s daughter.” Opener “I want to be ready” starts with mournful cello, delicately strummed guitar and a brooding synthesizer, and while threatening to build to something, barely gets started. “I am nothing” patters along, with sad ambient notes hanging in the air, and features the line “I am nothing without You, only the dirt beneath Your nail.” Shawn could not be accused of egotism. But he could be accused of not nailing the distinctive melodies that keep such songs afloat.
Two of the most throwaway songs on “Ripen” continue the melancholy impressionistic style but in their brevity are actually more interesting. “The rider on the white horse” having a quiet organic sound, but an urgent rhythm that is missing elsewhere. “Ramblings of a beggar” floats by inconspicuously, which suits the style. “Perfectly done,” on the other hand, seems a bit more solid, adding some middle-Eastern scales to Delta blues atmospherics. This world music theme is continued in the more-or-less instrumental number “Imago,” featuring flamenco guitar (and Shawn making pseudo-crowd noises in the background to simulate what one can only assume is a bull-fight).
“Perfectly done” introduces a well-worn Christian music theme illustrated by the lyrics, “Hey, little sister, why do you cry?” While Jesus is certainly the answer to life’s pain, it’s a song topic that needs some serious thought to make it more than clichéd, and Shawn succumbs to the usual lyrical treadmill. The same goes for the theme of “A little more” (“Just the other day… I saw a man sitting with a cup in his hand… I walked away with my pockets full of change”). Reminders about our duty to the poor are necessary, but it seems sometimes that the main point of these songs is repentance over lost opportunities rather than actually striving to do the work.
In general, there is a lack of action on “Ripen.” “Free” is about the only song that breaks into a trot. Shawn is obviously aiming for a meditative feel, but a whole album-full can start to overwhelm (or under-whelm as the case may be). One man’s “meditative” can be another man’s “boring.”

Nick's Rating: 2/5