Justin McRoberts

Item: Trust
Author: Trae Cadenhead

Trust

(2002)

Reviewed by Trae Cadenhead

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Label Grassroots MusicThe Phantom Tollbooth2002

acoustic rock ccm pop rock singer-songwriter

Justin McRoberts is by no means a new name in Christian music, having already released two albums on Five Minute Walk Records. However, now with Five Minute Walk's temporary hiatus, McRoberts has set out on his own with his independent release Trust. The fact that Trust is an independently released album may help it to appeal more to those who like music for the sake of music and not popularity.

To understand where McRoberts is coming from on this album it is first necessary to look at his first two releases. The debut Reason for Living was a journal of McRoberts' time with Young Life, an organization that he supports strongly to this day. Not only did McRoberts find God through the efforts of Young Life, but he also found an outlet to minister to others. After the release of Reason for Living, tragedy struck. McRoberts' father was suffering from depression and as a result committed suicide. This led to the material for Father, an album that found McRoberts venturing into a very sad and melancholy kind of songwriting due to the heavy subject matter. Yet at the same time, Father contained a message of hope that could only have been so powerful because of the story that it told.

Two years later, Trust was released. Though Trust is the newest album from McRoberts, in a way it is a pre-sequel of sorts, going back to the time before he became a Christian and striving to induce Christian listeners to feel compassion for the lost. The music of Trust doesn't venture far from that of McRoberts' past albums, staying in the territory of acoustic with whatever other instruments seem to work at the time. Trust oddly feels more overproduced than the previous album Father, despite its independent status. At times I want to tell McRoberts to get rid of the other instruments and just play his acoustic guitar.

Indeed, the music is truest and best when it is just McRoberts and his 6-string. We see the musical promise McRoberts holds midway through the album with "Alone Together," "Portland," and "Beautiful Once." "Portland" reminds me of the music of Denison Witmer. The song is vulnerable and honest and soft enough to accept without thinking twice. "Beautiful Once" is faster-paced, but it is also raw and meaningful. These songs find their beauty in their simplicity, a lesson that I wish McRoberts had adhered to with the rest of the album. It was almost as if a separate album began midway through Trust only to be silenced after a few minutes with more typical McRoberts CCM-influenced fare.

To be fair, the music on Trust is as good as that on Father. Yet I liked Father much more because it was an album with true meaning. Trust feels too much like a filler album, something to hold fans over until the next release when hopefully there will be a new sound and something weighty to sing about once again. I find myself hoping that when that next album comes it will be more organic and head in the direction that "Portland" took.

2.5 tocks