Adeola Peters’ performance of Yahweh is a long, slow walk into worship. With the intention of letting the listener savour the music, she does away with showing off, vocally and otherwise, and focuses on patience and feeling. The seven-minute audio, though it progresses slowly, gives a more devotional experience than a standard musical recording.

It opens with Adeola talking, setting the mood before she sings. She is conversational, establishing the song’s theological mood. But she is careful with her speech, trying not to be preachy. Once the melody comes in, the instruments build slowly around her. Synths and piano chords fill the space, and she sings with so much grace.

That approach continues as the performance moves forward, and the band does not suddenly push for a big peak. They hold back on purpose, keeping the rhythm slow so Adeola can lead the song with ease. That choice works well, but it also costs her something.

The slow pace stops the song from turning into the loud, overexcited kind of worship music you sometimes hear live. It gives people space to appreciate the words. Howbeit, halfway through, the arrangement becomes slack and lustreless. The repeated chorus, which is meant to be meditative, is repetitive and boring.

Its problem is that it confuses stillness with calm. When, really, staying still can easily come from fear of getting it wrong. At intervals, one can already imagine how the song would end.

To save the song from wandering into drudgery, Adeola changes her tone, jazzing up the melody. She reposses the song’s initial inaction that almost ruined its message with action to recapture its glory.

The performance’s strongest moments come with the move into the Elshaddai section. Adeola’s voice takes on more force, and the song suddenly opens. The use of indigenous phrases such as “Alagbada ina” and “Oloruko to po” makes this section distinctly Nigerian and adds another dimension to the worship.

The band uplifts the song by intensifying their play. Adeola’s voice rises to the occasion to match the feelings of the lyrics, and manages to sustain a high level of earnestness from the first word to the final note. She does not rely on unnecessary vocal flourishes, but trusts the band’s composition to work hand in hand with her to create an immersive performance.

This becomes more noticeable because the Elshaddai section later shows that the performance can come alive when the arrangement changes. The stronger vocal delivery and use of indigenous phrases give that section more character than the earlier passages. The question, then, is why some of that movement could not have appeared earlier.

The slower pace, notwithstanding, matches the devotional nature of the performance. Instead of pushing them through a series of predictable worship crescendos, it gives listeners time to savour and digest the message.