Passion: "Our Love Is Loud"

Title: Our Love Is Loud
Category: Live Praise & Worship
Artist/Group: Various
Rating: 3 / 5
Responses to this review (3)

Here I Am To Worship Enough Famous One Prepare The Way Sweep Me Away Madly Psalm 126 (You Have Done Great Things) Wonderful King Our Love Is Loud Come Thou Fount God Of Wonders My Glorious Dancing In The River

Passion's latest, Our Love Is Loud, is the compilation from last fall's 25-city "The Passion Experience Tour." The worship leaders varied from each venue and city, between Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, and David Crowder. I was fortunate to be present on their swing through Trenton, NJ, and it was a blast! Awesome praise led by Chris Tomlin and David Crowder, a challenging message by Louie Giglio, and some fun dancing at the end. Great worship.
[To view pictures from the tour, click here.]

Having said all that, the CD is somewhat disappointing. Please bear with me as I try to review the CD on it's own merits, because I can't help but be influenced by what I remember from the Trenton tour. First off, there are too many songs that can be found on other albums, especially those written and performed by David Crowder. The CD also suffers from general mediocrity. "Prepare The Way," "Sweep Me Away," "Madly," and "Psalm 126" are not really songs one can listen to over and over again.

So my recommendation is this. If you were present at the tour, you'll love this CD. Go and get it. If you already have David Crowder's Can You Hear Us, you should pass on this purchase. If you really like "Enough," "Famous One," and "My Glorious," which can only be found here, you probably already own this album. I wish they had held off releasing an album until they had more originals. But hey, Passion is going to having another "OneDay" event in May/June 2003 and I guess they needed the funding! Stay tuned.

Anyway, here are my favorite songs in decreasing order:

"Enough" is the hands-down best song on this CD. Honesty and simple truth, admission of need, declaration of our ultimate satisfaction -- it has it all. This song will speak especially to individuals who maybe are going through some tough times. If you've suffered loss recently, you may have come to the realization that God is literally ALL you have. Maybe you've lost your job, lost a loved one, gone through a failed marriage. Now all seems dark. If you're at that place, then this song especially will move you, as you realize that Christ is all that we really need.... Let God use the lyrics not only to heal you, but also to bring you tears of joy!

All of You/Is more than enough for all of me/For every thirst and every need/You satisfy me with Your love/And all I have in You is more than enough
You are my supply/My breath of life/Still more awesome than I know/You are my reward/Worth living for/Still more awesome than I know

"My Glorious" rocks!! When I first heard this song at the tour, I couldn't place it. It was so familiar and I knew that I had heard it many times in the past. I even wondered, at first, "Is it a U2 cover!??" It was not until a few days later that I realized it was a Deliriou5 song from Glo. [On a side note, I begged the praise team to teach "My Glorious" to the church at Life Conference 2001, but alas, it was not to be....]

"Famous One" and "Enough" really display Chris Tomlin's songwriting talents. It's his gift. The lyrics of "Famous One" are simple and the melody is earnest. You can listen to it once and sing it. I think this is one of the keys to a good praise song - it has to be easy to learn and sing.

"Here I Am to Worship" is the Tim Hughes cover we're all familiar with here at Emmanuel. It's the first track on this CD, because the reason for all of this is worship. The live version here is great.

Chris Tomlin's version of "God of Wonders" is really good but doesn't break any new ground. But the refreshing things about this song at the Trenton, NJ tour were the visuals that accompanied the lyrics. Imagine three large LCD projectors showing not the lyrics of the song, but images that reflect the lyrics: the Milky Way Galaxy ("...beyond our galaxy") as it's slowly spinning amid a thousand other galaxies ("...the universe declares Your majesty"), a satellite image of the earth slowly turning ("...of water, earth, and sky, the heavens are your tabernacle...")…. Do you get the picture? You had to be there. It was awesome!!!

"Dance In The River" didn't translate too well on this recording. It failed to capture the energy and the excitement of the Trenton tour. The track is slow and lacks drive in certain places. I think you have to listen to this track really loud to get any effect. It was really fun singing and dancing to it live.

David Crowder's "Our Love Is Loud" and "Come Thou Fount" are really good songs, but as I mentioned before, they can be found on Can You Hear Us, which was released just a few months ago.

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