Review Summary: The beauty of simplicity...
My heartstrings are bunched together and tightly wound. After listening to music as a hobby for so long I tend to lose track of simplicity and always attempt to walk the road less traveled. Sometimes this rewards me for my persistence and fortitude, but all too often I find myself an irritated elitist, too stubborn to recognize my faults and my aloofness. Composure is the soft plane ride back to earth, a simplistic, soft touch that carefully peels back the knots in my heart to reveal the true beauty of music that doesn’t require complex time signatures or off-timed vocal arrangements. Waking Ashland stay within the realms of piano driven alternative that most would write off as mainstream or generic, but their blunt honesty and pure love for crafting their music melts the hearts of naysayers and their debut album Composure does exactly just that.
The opening seconds of ‘Shades of Gray’ is the overall definition of Waking Ashland as a band. Vocalist and keyboardist, Jonathan Jones, is the mainstay of the band; setting the tempo, the heart of and soul of the band as each song is based solely off of Jones’ ability at piano and singing. In truth, the rest of the band takes backseat to Jones throughout each song, though guitarist Ryan Lallier does, at times, come to the forefront with his driving guitar chords and delay-heavy electric setting the tone to songs like ‘I Am For You’, ‘Overjoyed’ and ‘Same Problems’. While this could be misconstrued as a fault on Waking Ashland as a band, this actually helps them as it trims the fat and unnecessary parts in the songwriting and brings it back to the simplicity of the music that is at hand.
But the true beauty of Waking Ashland comes in the form of Jones’ simple and honest lyricism. While far from being considered your basic CCM Christian music artist, Composure bleeds love and compassion towards the Christian spectrum that can be a tad off-putting for some. Lyrics like ‘I’m in love with things you can’t define/ I’m in love with you cannot buy/ All for you, the one thing I know is true/ All for you, take me and renew’ from ‘Rumors’, while not blatantly any religious following can’t be helped the connotations that will be made for some who wouldn’t consider themselves just that. ‘Like the wind that I cannot see but I know is there right in front of me/You’re everywhere’ taken from ‘Silhouettes’ is another example that could be taken the wrong way if antagonistic towards religion in general. While some might be turned off to Composure as a result to the blunt like lyrics, it isn’t enough to take away from Waking Ashland.
Composure is a relaxing rest stop for me. When I find myself mired by the toils of constantly searching for new and better music, it’s such a relaxing thing to know that I have an album like this to fall back to when things get tiring and heavy. I find myself constantly trending upon the simplistic tracks that Jonathan Jones and company have crafted in this 05 album. While some faults might exist on Composure, the sheer beauty and simplicity that is apparent on this album is enough for me to look past these flaws and see it for what it is. A ride that is both easy on the ears and acts a great weight removed from my shoulders. A true gem to keep close to yourself when times get hard; when stress dominates and relaxation and composure seem far off.
