After Simply Nothing (2004), Ripen (2006) and Roots (2008) Shawn’s fourth album Closer will be released on March 22, 2011. The album Roots was a bit disappointing to me and the songs didn’t really get to me. Catchy songs that I missed on Roots can be found all over the new album. The songs again contain different music-styles from folk to soul and rap to pop, but most of the songs are melodic popsongs with catchy melodies and choruses. The sound of the album is really good and producer Christopher Stevens gets the credits for that. Most of the songs are written by Shawn himself but he got some help from songwriters like Brandon Heath, Joy Williams and Ben Glover. lyrically the songs are about the struggles Shawn faced in his own life during his whole life and especially the last couple of years during his marriage and eventual divorce. But in and through these struggles he remembered that God was faithful and was healing his heart and gave him mercy. His own words about this album are “If you listen to these songs, you can hear the pain I was going through.” But as I mentioned before there gleans hope at the horizon.
I recommend you buy this honest album on March 22, 2011 and look for some gems that are surely to be found there. Not an album for Metalheads, but for the lovers of the softer pop/rock.
John Mellencamp was never comfortable with the fact that he had changed his name to the stage name ´Johnny Cougar´. However, his success made it difficult to change back, so in the 80s he became the hybrid John Cougar Mellencamp.
