John Tibbs - The Christian Mumford & Sons?

Ever since the release of his last single, I've been following John Tibbs' career pretty closely. I didn't follow his career before, but I love the way his style has progressed. The music from earlier in his career could best be described as more generic tunes. Now, don't get me wrong - I love all of his music. He's one of the most, if not THE most talented singer/songwriter I've come across and every single song is lyrically impactful. I just feel that, with the exception of Swallowing Death, Breathing Life (A song on my Top 100 list, probably somewhere around #30) none of the melodies really stuck out to me.

And then Run Wild (In My Soul) happened.

If I hadn't been surfing the Christian & Gospel home page on iTunes, I would never have come across this single and I might never have found one of my favorite artists. (Praise God for good timing, right?) I'm not really sure what triggered this abrupt change in style, but I love it. John Tibbs has essentially become the Mumford & Sons of the Christian music world, and it's a sound so unique to Christian music that he's basically created his own niche. His rich lyrics and smooth voice adds to the effect, to the point that were he to decide to go mainstream, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he could compete with everyone else for radio time. (I did mention he's an indie artist, didn't I?)

Anyway, he continues this folk sound in his new EP, and he shows no signs of letting his foot off the gas. Here's the track-by-track breakdown.

Track 1 - Anchor

The title track for this EP, and probably my favorite title track in my library. I mentioned in one of my blog posts that the three ways to get me to fall in love with a song are harmonies, acoustic guitar/piano and musical "gimmicks." Right inside the first 10 seconds, you already have harmonies and acoustic guitar strumming. Later on, a banjo is brought in. Since this is a folk song, that's kind of a requirement. It never seems to overpower the rest of the instruments though, and complements the rest of the track. This song knocks Swallowing Death, Breathing Life out of my favorite John Tibbs song spot.

Track 2 - Abraham

This song deviates slightly from the folksy atmosphere that the first track creates... okay, it deviates a lot from it, becoming more of a rock and roll/folk hybrid. I can't say that I'm really a fan because I wanted to see the entirety of the EP go the route that the title track went, but for what it is, this is a decent song.

Track 3 - Heaven Come Down

This is one of those songs for people that love slow worship music that gives you time to reflect on the words you're singing. The slow pace means that it's a pass for me, but for any fan of slower worship songs, this one is worth looking into.

Track 4 - Nothing But The Blood

The one song that isn't originally written by Tibbs, he brings piano into this version making this my favorite rendition of one of my favorite worship songs. (On a complete non-sequiter, he sounds scarily like Andy Cherry in this song. I'll leave it to you to decide if you think I'm right or crazy.)

Track 5 - Be My Melody

Similar to Swallowing Death, Breathing Life this song starts off really slow and builds up to an amazing crescendo, all backed up by an acoustic guitar and some piano chords.

My 2 Picks:

Anchor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z33aXVaatI4)
Swallowing Death, Breathing Life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6nl2yGLLOo)

Final Thoughts:

I am typically a huge supporter of indie artists, but the fact that John Tibbs is an indie artist frustrates me because I (selfishly, I know) want more of his music than he's currently able to produce. He's only put out one studio album, two EP's and one single, and would really benefit from the resources that a record label can offer. I don't want to have to keep refreshing future Kickstarter pages every 30 seconds to make sure we're going to be funded in time. (On a side note, if someone hadn't donated $2500 with about 2 days to go, he wouldn't have been funded.)

Anyway, for what it's worth, this is my favorite album by Tibbs. I can't wait to see where he takes his abrupt style change in future albums. 7.8/10