Passion

Item: How Great Is Our God
Author: Burton Wray

How Great Is Our God

(2005)

Reviewed by Burton Wray

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Label Sparrow RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2005

ccm pop rock worship

In the late '90s and early part of this decade, Passion was known for their inventive worship music. Their first three CDs were instrumental in the rise of the modern worship movement. Unfortunately, in 2002 they released a project that instead of leading the way, followed the pack. The songs on that album were repetitive and not to the level of the previous Passion releases. With every release since, the question has been where in the spectrum that new release will fall between being as great as the early CDs or as weak as 2002's Our Love Is Loud.

This new release falls in the middle of the spectrum, unfortunately, more on the side of that 2002 release. The first track does not fit well at the beginning of this CD. It starts the project off too fast and doesn't draw someone in as well as an opening song should. It is hard to get into the song, when there are so many guitar interludes and solos. These break the song up too much and result in a song with little flow. The CD does improve with the second track, "All Over the World." Unfortunately, while this is a good song it falls into a trap that other songs on this project do--it's too long and repetitive. One of the highlights of this album is Chris Tomlin's radio hit,
"Indescribable," which can also be found on his most recent solo project. Things slow down for the title track, performed by Chris Tomlin. Other tracks vary from the fast and upbeat to the slow and meditative, such as Shane and Shane's cover of the hymn "It is Well."

Highlight tracks include the title track, "Majesty," "The Glory of Your Name," "Mission's Flame," and "It is Well".

Another mark against this project is that at least half of the songs appear on other projects. The early Passion projects featured brand new music, but since then the various artists have started releasing their own records. This results in some tracks appearing first on an artist's own record then on a Passion project. Unfortunately this practice takes away from the Passion release and may make some feel short-changed.

This is a project from a group that is capable of so much more.

2.5 tocks