Let the Road Pave Itself

iTunes Review

As one half of the sibling duo LaRue, Paul LaRue recorded Christian pop tunes aimed squarely at a teenaged audience. While traces of his earlier sound remain, Let the Road Pave Itself displays a new lyric depth and overall maturity. LaRue benefits from a flexible, highly expressive voice that shifts from tremulous to heroic over the course of these tracks. His God-centered viewpoint doesn’t preclude him from acknowledging nagging fears and doubts in “Chasing the Daylight,” “Why” and “Running So Long.” “Home” and “Black and Blue” deal with life’s transitions with sensitivity, while “Sleeping Beauty” and “All I Want” are love songs with a yearning edge. While tracks like “Erase and Rewind” and “Before the Sun Goes Down” radiate buoyantly hopeful vibes, LaRue is at his best on more subdued, thoughtful tunes, like the soft-spoken praise number “Mountains High Valleys Low.” Paul Moak’s production takes a Brit-pop style approach, giving the album a textured, insinuating shimmer. If LaRue hasn’t completely found himself here, he makes his journey seem worthwhile both spiritually and artistically.