Whole Heart // Passion 2018 Album Review + Giveaway

You are probably surprised at how much I've blogged this week! Today, I have an album review, thanks to the great people over at FlyBy Promotions. I got to review the Passion album for this year's conference I have to start with a disclamer: I think Passion songs are too long. Some times it's a literal time length (Great Are You Lord is almost nine minutes long!), but usually it's just that it continues on, repeating, when it should just end. Rather than state that for each song, I thought I'd just say at the beginning that one thing I don't like about them is their length. So, apply that to the songs along with my other comments :)

Whole Heart feat. Kristian Stanfill

This is the title track for Passion 2018. Who else would get to sing that song but Mr. Passion himself? (I gave him that title). This song is about God loving us with His whole heart and us finding our identity in Him. 

Almighty God feat. Sean Curran

A song proclaiming God's power. It's really easy to pick out a theme for this one. Some songs are complicated to figure out; not Almighty God. I like Sean Curran's voice and he did a good job with this song. 


God, You're So Good feat. Kristian Stanfill & Melodie Malone 
This song is an expanded version of the children's song. They made it tolerable for adults :) The chorus is the children's song "God Is So Good" and they put verses around it. That means the chorus can get a bit repetitive, but it's way better than the kids' song. I liked this one. 


Reckless Love feat. Melodie Malone
This is one of my favorite new worship songs! My preferred version is by Cory Asbury, as he's the first one I heard sing it, but Melodie does a great job too. The music, the lyrics; it's so good. In a nutshell, this song is about God's love to us, regardless of whether or not we deserve it (and we usually don't). My favorite part of this song is the bridge:

There's no shadow you won't light up, mountain you won't climb up, coming after me

There's no wall you won't kick down, lie you won't tear down, coming after me

Heaven feat. Sean Curran
I've seen this guy's name before but I can't figure out where. I need to listen to this song some more and really sift through the lyrics. I liked how it was a sort of prayer and that it had a bit of the Lord's Prayer in it. Other than that, I don't have much comment on this song. It was an okay song; not bad, but not great, in my opinion.

More Like Jesus feat. Kristian Stanfill
Does this guy do anything besides Passion? I'm kidding, of course, but he's a Passion mainstay. This song is a prayer set to music. "If more of you is less of me, take everything." I think I'll need to listen to it several times to get all the words, but I like what I heard. It's exactly the kind of song you'd expect from Kristian Stanfill.

Hallelujah, Our God Reigns feat. Brett Younker
I think this was Passion's big praise song for the year. It was good, but not the best praise song to come out of this event. We'll see how big it gets in the churches and on the radio in the coming months. There's not a lot of depth to this song; it's almost like a short psalm. The psalms will sometimes say something, say it again a little longer, and then later restate it again with maybe a slight variation. This song was similar.

Ghost feat. Crowder
I had a hard time understanding all the lyrics (Crowder can be difficult to understand), but I got the general idea. I think that using "ghost" was a poor decision by the song writers because we don't really use that term to describe the Holy Spirit anymore. So it sounds really weird and at first I was thinking, "whoa, Crowder, what?" but then I realized he meant the Holy Spirit. If you know that ahead of time, I think the song becomes a lot better. The ending was a bit abrupt. I didn't expect that to be the end. Not my favorite on the album.

Ever Almighty feat. Melodie Malone
With all the things going around us, it is so easy to lose sight of God and His power and His promises. This song declares God's power and might. It proclaims who God is, what He has done, and what He will do. This is a new song for me and I think it's going to be one of my favorites on this album. It gets a little repetitive at the end, but overall I like it.

Great Are You Lord feat. Matt Redman
This has never been a song I loved, but I liked this version best of all the ones I've heard so far. I liked in the middle when Redman leads in saying "Great are you Lord" as a prayer over our families, schools, etc. 

All My Hope feat. Crowder & Tauren Wells
Very gospel with some jazzy feel too. This is Crowder's new style. I haven't heard this song before. Surprisingly, this song is a decent length! It's a simple song about the believer's new life in Christ; the transformation that comes with faith. That ending... Wow, Tauren!

I see two distinct themes in this album: love (God's for us and our's for God) and who God is. Most, if not all, of these songs address one or both of these themes in some way. They are great reminders for us, as we are prone to forget. 

Overall, I enjoyed this album. I've never been to a Passion conference, but some of my favorite worship songs have come from there (Glorious Day, Jesus Paid It All)

This album is a worship album and it's songs are the kind of songs sung in contemporary churches today. Some people aren't really into that kind of music. But if you are, and if you wanted to go to Passion but couldn't make it, I have some great news for you. You could win a copy of this album from this year's Passion conference. 

Send me an email at smylinggirly.blog@gmail.com by FEBRUARY 28th if you'd like to be entered to win. Sorry for the short entry time, but I have to get the winner to the promoter by March 1st. 

Have you ever been to Passion? What did you think?

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255:  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”):  Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway.  Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller /FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days on the same blog, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again.  Winner is subject to eligibility verification.