The latest installment of the Passion series was recorded live on January 1-4, 2011. I would say that I had some pretty big expectations for this album coming from their last production. I was a little apprehensive to purchase it when I first saw the track listing. It seems that was really a production of "Chris Tomlin and Friends". It seemed pretty one side seeing as the "Awakening" album had quite a few more artists and varying styles. I took the plunge for the deluxe version and was actually quite pleased. This album has a worshipability that i haven't heard for a while. A lot of recent "Worship Albums" have been really high production with at least 5 or 6 guitars on every track, sometimes 2 drummers/percussionists, as well as having 2 people on keys. Many of these tracks aren't necessarily stripped down but seem to be a little more straightforward in there songwriting giving it a much more accessible feel. Even though this album is mostly comprised of Tomlin tracks I believe him and I have made up our differences and are on listening terms again.
It's hard to go about critiquing the album as a whole with so many artist so I'll break it down as much as possible. A lot of the songs on this album are anthem type songs but a couple do begin to get really reflective. "Here for You" starts the album of with a bang and stays huge most of the time. "Symphony" is a song in the style of many of Hillsong's. It starts relatively small gets big to the point of wondering if the band has much left. Then it drops out to some keys and Tomlin's voice then builds back up in to a frenzy with the drummer doing intricate tom work until and epic ring-out. "Waiting Here For You" is a reflective song of faith. The song "All My Fountains" is down right awesome. It has some sounds reminiscent of Coidplay's "Viva La Vida". I don't know if it's the clap tracks, the lead riff or the constant kick drum. This song isn't saturated with electric guitars or keys making it one of the more natural sounding ones on the album. I'm really excited to worship to this one in the near future. That leads us to the most out of place song on this record, "Shadows". David Crowder*Band has a knack for production and artificial beats and doing things a little different than the rest of the worship community. All the differences aside I think the melding between these guys and Lecrae is awesome. "Lord I Need You" is a great example of a hymn being melded with a modern day worship song to make a beautiful fusion. You'll find that with many worship songs I tend to compare them to Hillsong. It's because they are at the forefront of music and usually pushing things and you can see there influence in a lot of the worship songs today. "Set Free" is a great example of that. I can just here an Australian(probably JD) yelling something over this anthem. After a little research it's probably from the fact that it was co-written by a worship leader for Hillsong Live. Oh and speaking of Hillsong the next song is "Forever Reign" Kristian Stanfill sticks close to the original on this one. He just changes a few of the riffs but keeps the arrangement the same but hey whatever it takes to get Hillsong's songs on Klove. "Sometimes" is David Crowder's song thats a little more befitting the rest of the worship on this album. I personally think that this is one of the better songs on the album. Kristian Stanfill brings it with an original song "Always". It was on his latest release "Mountains Move" but i think this is a great live representation of this song. After going from that last big song the bring it down to another nice and quiet reflective song by Christy. Its mostly lead on the keys which is fine by me if done right which this is. "Spirit Fall" is another slow to start song that builds into a frenzied bridge precluded with a long batch of "ooohs" It feels like there is really just a new mold to make a hit worship song that most artists are sticking to. Chris closes out the regular cd with "All To Us". Again it's a great combination of hymn and contemporary worship.
There are 2 bonus tracks that are found on the deluxe version. The first is "Constant" by Charlie Hall. I don't know why he got snubbed from the standard version of the Cd. I think that this song could have easily to fit on the original but it's harder to market a Cd to Christian soccer mom's without a lot of Tomlin on it. The Drums alone on the track are pretty sweet and carry it to another level. The last is a repeat of the last album "Our God" just with a few differences. It's intro s covered in strings and there's a rap break down? Yep it's true Tomlin drops out and what we are left with is yet another appearance by Lecrae. I don't think that the blend or transition into to rap was as well put together as David crowder's but I think that his song lent a little more for that.
Overall I think that this album is well put together. I think that we'll be hearing quite of few of these song's being worshiped to in our churches in the near future. Some song's to listen to are "All My Fountains", Shadows", "Set Free", "Sometimes", and "Constant"
