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With three albums under his belt, California native Jadon Lavik has built himself quite a
repertoire. Quickly, this newcomer to the CCM scene garnered elite radio attention, as well as the hearts and
minds of his listeners. On his new project, entitled The Road: Acoustic, Lavik has collected eight
original favorites, two new compositions, and an old classic to be stripped down and re-recorded as intimate
acoustic pieces. Truly, it will not take fans of any musical genre long to discover that this is the way Lavik's
music was meant to be heard.
Even as the first seconds of the opener "Hear Our Song" play out, it's obvious that Jadon Lavik knows
exactly what he is doing. He makes the acoustic guitar sing, very rarely allowing distractions of other
instruments. The new version of "Moving On Faith" includes some tasty guitar picking that would make even Jack
Johnson jealous, and "Come Thou Font" is re-envisioned as a peppy pop ballad. "Come To Me" is a bit mellower with
some well-placed slide guitar twang, and features a properly lo-fi instrumental epilogue in the next track.
Lavik's premier single "What If" from his debut album is nearly unchanged, but the focus fortunately lands on
his vocal talents. The dual set of new tracks wrap up the disc, "Mighty God" and "Surrender," both of which are
sincerely heartfelt and inspirational.
In theory (and literally), The Road is nothing new. The eleven songs on the album are your typical
acoustic pop, blended with a small helping of folk. And while the resulting creation can't quite hold a candle
to Jon Foreman's solo work, or even Josh Wilson or Bebo Norman, it's a welcome upgrade.
Jadon Lavik is known for his popular worship sensibilities, but The Road takes his style in a new
direction. Almost surprisingly, the acoustic recreation of some of his most popular tracks is exactly the element
that may have been missing all along. Not to say that The Road is perfect-- a few of the selections land
squarely in the "didn't-Jeremy-Camp-get-here-first?" category-- but it's sure to convert a few non-listeners
to Lavik's music. While it may not necessarily be a good idea to run out and pick up his discography, the money
spent on The Road will not go to waste.
- Review date: 1/28/10, written by Garrett DeRossett of Jesusfreakhideout.com
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Signed to BEC Recordings, Jadon Lavik has been a leading songwriter in the praise and worship scene
in recent years. After two studio albums plus a hymns project, he released an all-acoustic album
last Fall entitled The Road Acoustic. On one hand, I can admire the idea behind a project
like this-- putting a new spin on previous work is an inherently novel concept, and a lot of artists
benefit from these treatments. Lavik's contemporary pop musings when turned into all-acoustic work,
however, doesn't necessarily make it much better; the change here isn't dramatic enough to command
attention. In fact, one could even go so far as to say it's a little boring. Lavik knows how to pull off
the acoustic sound relatively well, but when some songs don't feel changed much at all ("Come Thou Fount,"
"Father"), this severely lessens this album's potential appeal. This album probably would have benefitted from
more new material, or condensing this album of all-previous-material into an EP. Most fans of Lavik
have probably bought this album already as this review goes to press, and calling this a legitimately
"bad" album would be an insult, but it's hard to deny that Lavik's latest outing is a potential
waste of the listener's time.
- Roger Gelwicks of Jesusfreakhideout.com
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Record Label: BEC Recordings
