Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

When he's not leading worship at Grace Community Church in the town of Porthcawl on the south coast of Wales, Josh Matthews plies his trade as a singer/songwriter and his debut EP sees him team up with producer Ewan Jones for a collection of introspective songs that tell of the journey of following Christ throughout the singer's life. Things are kept relatively simple musically with nothing much more than an acoustic guitar, bass, drums and Heddwen Evans-Davies' harmonies to accompany Matthews' gritty vocals (sounding very much like fellow countryman Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics) to good effect. There's a natural progression here with the first two tracks "Open Book" and "Rain" dealing with looking back whilst "Couldn't If I Tried" recognises God in the present by paraphrasing Psalm 139. A couple of brief ambient interludes are included for padding before "Welcome Home" breaks the overriding melancholic feel of this release by cautiously looking outwards, upwards and onwards.

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