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94% [A]
John Waller While I'm Waiting
I guess I have a biased opinion of John Waller and I think’s safe
to say that I will always will. Since starting Christian Music
Review in September 2004, we have written dozens and dozens
of reviews and have done multiple features of artists over that
same time. Our ministry team on average reviews between 15-
20 albums in any given month, so you can imagine how many
albums we get in all wanting our attention each promising to be
the ‘next big thing’. I remember getting John’s debut album The
Blessing in the mail one day in January 2007. The caption next
to John Waller’s name was ‘Billboard Music’s Top 10 Faces to
Watch in 2007’. In my opinion after listening through to the
album I couldn’t agree more with the plug. Unfortunately the
album didn’t do as well as originally planned. The album’s
singles had minimal spin on radio. This disappointed me a lot
for the simple fact that when I did have the time to listen to the
radio, the same music played over and over again. Songs in
which the central content had nothing to do with God, Christ or
even the Bible for that matter. It was sad, but this is true of a lot
of Christian radio today. All entertainment, little to no
ministering value. There is a lot of great ministering music out
there, but it’s becoming less and less each year it seems.
With that said, let’s move forward to the summer of 2008. It
was the summer in which all the talk was about the upcoming
film, Fireproof. The follow-up to 2006’s Facing The Giants was
sure to be a hit as was it’s predecessor. I remember getting a
press release with the soundtrack listing for the movie. I was
expecting to see Third Day and Casting Crowns but one name
jumped off the page at me. John Waller? Wow, could this be
the break that he had been looking for? I think so. If you have
seen the film, you’ll notice that not only was John’s song
“While I’m Waiting” featured in the emotional climax of the film,
but it is the only song in the soundtrack that is played in it’s
entirety during the film. Impressive. I think the weekend after
the film opened, “While I’m Waiting” shot up the charts and
became the #1 downloaded Christian song on iTunes, where it
stayed for quite some time.
Let’s jump ahead even further to January 2009. I had spoken to
John one afternoon about his upcoming album, which was then
to be called Cling to the Call and was to be released on June 2nd.
He was so excited for everyone to hear the album. I remember
when I got it, of course I was highly anticipating the follow-up
to The Blessing. After my first listen through I was blown
away! I know, like I said, I am a huge fan of John’s music, but it’
s not like he doesn’t give people a reason to be fans. His music
is entertaining to listen to and there is no question to the Biblical
messages behind his songs. I was quite impressed. After
listening to ‘Cling to the Call’ for a few weeks, John texted me
and told me the album title had been changed to While I’m
Waiting, and would feature two versions of the song of the same
title, the album version from The Blessing and a new remix with
audio from the film Fireproof interlaced within the music. The
album release date was also being pushed forward to have an
April 7th release date.
There were so many songs on this album that jumped out at me.
“Hands of the Healer”, “Faith Is Living” and “Cling to the Call”.
The adventurous-yet-reminder-song of “Quest” was a song I
immediately drew into. The message of “Of All the Places” was
another song that really got me thinking about my Savior and
what He did for me. The song title really speaks volumes of
God’s love towards us. It really brought (to me) John 3:16 to
life. Of all the places that Jesus could spend His time, He chose
to leave His home in Heaven with the Lord to bear the sin of the
world, to live among us, to be mocked and to later be crucified
and resurrected. All in the name of love. I like how the song
goes through a chronological order of Christ’s life why
implementing our own story within the story for Gospel. “Of
all the places, for the Lord of Lords / Of all the places, for a King
/ Of all of the places for deity to be / Who would have imagined
that King would come to this place for me?”
“House of God” was another song that I really enjoyed. I
remember hearing an early demo version of this song back in
October 2007. It was amazing of the transformation that this
song had gone through. More importantly was the message of
the song. It describes the church as the Bible does. It’s not a
building, nor a steeple, but the body of Christ in which inhabits
it. I don’t think I have heard a song that focuses so much on the
importance of seeing the church as the Body of Christ, rather the
building itself. I have seen so many churches out there that are
just so massive in size. So many amenities. But Sunday
morning after Sunday morning, these great church buildings lay
half empty. It’s sad, and I think we need to get our mindset
back on what Jesus created the church for. The body of
believers that came together to worship God in Spirit and in
Truth, regardless if it was in a building or even out in the open
under some trees. “Where there are two or more gathered
together in My name, there will I be in the midst”
“Priestly Blessing” was a song that John has used in his live
shows prior to it being a part of this album. It was a song that
really got people in the crowd involved with each other. One big
giant ‘crowd-prayer’ as I call it. The song’s lyrics come straight
from the scripture found in Numbers.
The song in which I enjoyed most on this new album would
definitely have to be “Our God Reigns Here”. Wow, such an
amazing song! This was another song that I had heard an early
demo version of and it’s western-movie vibe and grungy chord
progressions just gave me the ‘willies’! The story behind the
song was even more amazing. John tells of a mission trip that he
took with church to Abervan, a small coal mining town in
Wales. In 1966, after years of mounting up unusable coal on the
side of a massive hill, moisture had built up inside and caused a
landslide. Sitting at the bottom of the hill was a school, which
was blanketing by the slide, killing over a hundred people,
mostly children with only a few survivors. Forty years later,
there is a mass grave of over one hundred identical headstones on
the side of the hill reminding people who visit of the horrible
events of that fateful day. Even worse was the teenage suicides
over the years, suggesting that the town never was able to move
past the horrible events of that day. “The spirit of death reigns
over the town of Abervan” is what one local told John while on
his mission trip. The story of this disaster convicted John so
much that he wrote the song, “Rebuking these evil spirit in the
name of Jesus Christ” reminding them that through Christ, evil
has been defeated and also reminds us that our God reigns here.
Amen.
Closing Thoughts:
I was very impressed with John’s new album, While I’m
Waiting. I thought musically it was step up from The Blessing,
but either way if you enjoyed his first record, you’ll definitely
enjoy this one. For those who are fans of groups like Casting
Crowns, Chris Tomlin and other AC groups will find something
in John’s music that will be encouraging to you and take you on
a entertaining musical journey that’s sure to end with the same
result--an hour well spent.
I guess I have a biased opinion of John Waller and I think’s safe
to say that I will always will. Since starting Christian Music
Review in September 2004, we have written dozens and dozens
of reviews and have done multiple features of artists over that
same time. Our ministry team on average reviews between 15-
20 albums in any given month, so you can imagine how many
albums we get in all wanting our attention each promising to be
the ‘next big thing’. I remember getting John’s debut album The
Blessing in the mail one day in January 2007. The caption next
to John Waller’s name was ‘Billboard Music’s Top 10 Faces to
Watch in 2007’. In my opinion after listening through to the
album I couldn’t agree more with the plug. Unfortunately the
album didn’t do as well as originally planned. The album’s
singles had minimal spin on radio. This disappointed me a lot
for the simple fact that when I did have the time to listen to the
radio, the same music played over and over again. Songs in
which the central content had nothing to do with God, Christ or
even the Bible for that matter. It was sad, but this is true of a lot
of Christian radio today. All entertainment, little to no
ministering value. There is a lot of great ministering music out
there, but it’s becoming less and less each year it seems.
With that said, let’s move forward to the summer of 2008. It
was the summer in which all the talk was about the upcoming
film, Fireproof. The follow-up to 2006’s Facing The Giants was
sure to be a hit as was it’s predecessor. I remember getting a
press release with the soundtrack listing for the movie. I was
expecting to see Third Day and Casting Crowns but one name
jumped off the page at me. John Waller? Wow, could this be
the break that he had been looking for? I think so. If you have
seen the film, you’ll notice that not only was John’s song
“While I’m Waiting” featured in the emotional climax of the film,
but it is the only song in the soundtrack that is played in it’s
entirety during the film. Impressive. I think the weekend after
the film opened, “While I’m Waiting” shot up the charts and
became the #1 downloaded Christian song on iTunes, where it
stayed for quite some time.
Let’s jump ahead even further to January 2009. I had spoken to
John one afternoon about his upcoming album, which was then
to be called Cling to the Call and was to be released on June 2nd.
He was so excited for everyone to hear the album. I remember
when I got it, of course I was highly anticipating the follow-up
to The Blessing. After my first listen through I was blown
away! I know, like I said, I am a huge fan of John’s music, but it’
s not like he doesn’t give people a reason to be fans. His music
is entertaining to listen to and there is no question to the Biblical
messages behind his songs. I was quite impressed. After
listening to ‘Cling to the Call’ for a few weeks, John texted me
and told me the album title had been changed to While I’m
Waiting, and would feature two versions of the song of the same
title, the album version from The Blessing and a new remix with
audio from the film Fireproof interlaced within the music. The
album release date was also being pushed forward to have an
April 7th release date.
There were so many songs on this album that jumped out at me.
“Hands of the Healer”, “Faith Is Living” and “Cling to the Call”.
The adventurous-yet-reminder-song of “Quest” was a song I
immediately drew into. The message of “Of All the Places” was
another song that really got me thinking about my Savior and
what He did for me. The song title really speaks volumes of
God’s love towards us. It really brought (to me) John 3:16 to
life. Of all the places that Jesus could spend His time, He chose
to leave His home in Heaven with the Lord to bear the sin of the
world, to live among us, to be mocked and to later be crucified
and resurrected. All in the name of love. I like how the song
goes through a chronological order of Christ’s life why
implementing our own story within the story for Gospel. “Of
all the places, for the Lord of Lords / Of all the places, for a King
/ Of all of the places for deity to be / Who would have imagined
that King would come to this place for me?”
“House of God” was another song that I really enjoyed. I
remember hearing an early demo version of this song back in
October 2007. It was amazing of the transformation that this
song had gone through. More importantly was the message of
the song. It describes the church as the Bible does. It’s not a
building, nor a steeple, but the body of Christ in which inhabits
it. I don’t think I have heard a song that focuses so much on the
importance of seeing the church as the Body of Christ, rather the
building itself. I have seen so many churches out there that are
just so massive in size. So many amenities. But Sunday
morning after Sunday morning, these great church buildings lay
half empty. It’s sad, and I think we need to get our mindset
back on what Jesus created the church for. The body of
believers that came together to worship God in Spirit and in
Truth, regardless if it was in a building or even out in the open
under some trees. “Where there are two or more gathered
together in My name, there will I be in the midst”
“Priestly Blessing” was a song that John has used in his live
shows prior to it being a part of this album. It was a song that
really got people in the crowd involved with each other. One big
giant ‘crowd-prayer’ as I call it. The song’s lyrics come straight
from the scripture found in Numbers.
The song in which I enjoyed most on this new album would
definitely have to be “Our God Reigns Here”. Wow, such an
amazing song! This was another song that I had heard an early
demo version of and it’s western-movie vibe and grungy chord
progressions just gave me the ‘willies’! The story behind the
song was even more amazing. John tells of a mission trip that he
took with church to Abervan, a small coal mining town in
Wales. In 1966, after years of mounting up unusable coal on the
side of a massive hill, moisture had built up inside and caused a
landslide. Sitting at the bottom of the hill was a school, which
was blanketing by the slide, killing over a hundred people,
mostly children with only a few survivors. Forty years later,
there is a mass grave of over one hundred identical headstones on
the side of the hill reminding people who visit of the horrible
events of that fateful day. Even worse was the teenage suicides
over the years, suggesting that the town never was able to move
past the horrible events of that day. “The spirit of death reigns
over the town of Abervan” is what one local told John while on
his mission trip. The story of this disaster convicted John so
much that he wrote the song, “Rebuking these evil spirit in the
name of Jesus Christ” reminding them that through Christ, evil
has been defeated and also reminds us that our God reigns here.
Amen.
Closing Thoughts:
I was very impressed with John’s new album, While I’m
Waiting. I thought musically it was step up from The Blessing,
but either way if you enjoyed his first record, you’ll definitely
enjoy this one. For those who are fans of groups like Casting
Crowns, Chris Tomlin and other AC groups will find something
in John’s music that will be encouraging to you and take you on
a entertaining musical journey that’s sure to end with the same
result--an hour well spent.
| Additional Review by: Jay Heilman On: 3/25/2009 jay.heilman@ christianmusicreview.org |
