While I'm Waiting
Posted April 03, 2009
By Nathan,
John Waller’s sophomore project, While I’m Waiting, contains only nine new songs. Yes there are twelve tracks, but the title track was originally on Waller’s debut CD The Blessing which eliminates the ending “Fireproof remix” which includes sound bites from the popular Christian film. Also the guitar driven “priestly blessing” is a simple alternate version of the popular benediction originating from Numbers 6. Removing the title track takes a lot away from the album, but John Waller’s attempts pulls things together early on balances out the lacking second half of his contemporary pop album.
Starting off the CD is “Hands of the healer” a more convincing worship song than most, which is followed by the inspiration filled “faith is living”. The guitar driven “Cling to the call” has southern roots and “perfect peace” is too light to be a epic ending song. “Our God reigns here” is the most interesting song because of it’s out of place riffs which fade into a heavier than average praise and worship tune. John Waller takes no risks but does a good job making the upbeat “quest” an enjoyable listen even though the album as a whole lacks something new.
Thankfully John Waller does take a Biblical prospective to writing most of his songs which include passages of scripture frequently. For example “Dead Man’s Song says ‘I am crucified with Christ’ along with ‘if we try to save our life we will lose it’ and “Faith is Living: ‘It’s the evidence of things I cannot see/faith is the evidence of things I cannot see… you never live until you live by faith’. Waller takes on the traditional idea that “we go to Church” on “house of God”, and Waller writes a fine song regarding the Savior of men and the “quest”. The weakest songs are “hands of the healer” and “our God reigns here” which are typical worship songs.
Contrast John Waller’s While I’m Waiting with Warren Barfield’s Worth Fighting for back in May of 2008. Both albums featured song on Fireproof and Barfield’s “Love is not a fight” was even the song which backed the trail along with ending the film. However over the months While I’m waiting has since become the theme song for Fireproof as well as his album. What does that mean? It means that if you liked Barfield’s album you will love Waller’s because the depth of the lyrics flows almost as well as Waller’s album cover.
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