Luke Wareham and Rachel Mason “Whisper” EP Review

Prime Cuts: More like You (Barnabas), Shadows, Faithful Friend

Overall Grade: 3.5/5

Many worship songs are nothing more than spurts of prayers delivered in the spur of the moment.  There's nothing wrong with this if you have been meditating on the Word of God day and night. Unfortunately, this is more than often not the case. This is why many of our songs are often bereft of depth and as a result this has often been used as a reason why we shouldn't be singing contemporary compositions in churches today.  Thank god we have worship leaders like Luke Wareham and Rachel Mason.  Hailing from the UK, Wareham and Mason have leading worship for years. "Whisper" is their collective EP together, where Wareham sings lead on three of the cuts and Mason takes the microphone on the other two..The pride of this five-song record is that there are lots of well-thought out biblical and theological treatises over melodies that have a singalong quality.  

The pop-centric "Shadows" opens the record to a great start. The combining explosion of synth and guitar riffs have an immediacy that engages us right at the get-go.  And with a seasoned maturity of a Keith Getty, the song's lyrics give exposition to how the Cross of Jesus impacts our lives today projected with clarity and palatability.  This is followed by the hymn-like "Faithful Friend."  Wareham bares his soul as he sings about the abiding love of our Lord Jesus with verve and tenderness.  

Rachel Mason takes on the center-stage with the title cut "Whisper" and "Hearing Heart."  The problem is not so much with the songs, but the way Mason sounds.  She sounds like she is 10,000 feet away from the microphone.  Not only does she sound distant but her voice lacks conviction, intonation and depth.  "Whisper" is thankfully slightly salvaged when Wareham steps in midway through the song.  Despite the anaemic vocals and the "demo" like production, "Hearing Heart" is much needed prayer we need to utter each day.

The quality picks up again with what is the best song on the record "More Like You (Barnabas)."  There are many songs these days that speak of our need to be more like Christlike.  But  "More Like You (Barnabas)" gives specification of what Godliness looks like in everyday happenstance.  Instead of dealing with the abstract, this well-crafted worship song gives concrete pictures.  Though this EP does have some moments of weaknesses, it shouldn't stop us from checking it out.  This is a wonderful example of what thoughtful and meaningful worship music ought to sound like.

 

 

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