Matthew West is no stranger to Christian Contemporary Music. The first time I saw him perform live I went home and bought some of his music and felt my faith strengthen every time I listened to it. Now, West is back with his seventh studio album and it stayed at #1 on the Billboard Christian charts for 17 weeks. Instead of using other people’s stories to create an album, West returns to sharing personal anecdotes from his own life.
Song by Song Review
All In: A personal anthem with lyrics that illustrate a “no turning back” declaration of faith. Not wanting to waste your life; avoiding a simply comfortable life.
Broken Things: A song showcasing the unfathomable mercy and graciousness of God. Those the world thinks are useless or mismatched are the people he calls His and uses to accomplish his plans for a hope and a future through them.
Mercy Is A Song: A song specifically highlighting the “come as you are” truth to God’s love and mercy.
Amen: Reminiscent of Mercy Me’s “Happy Dance” with a baptist church feel, dancing in the aisles at Sunday service sound. A song about God’s great grace.
The Sound of a Life Changing: A song about how God’s grace overwhelms your life and takes the black, white, and grey into bright and beautiful colors.
Something Greater: My favorite song about how there are moments in life or even people you meet who you feel were definitely part of a bigger plan than anything you could have fathomed. How God’s plan is bigger and more intricate than you even realize.
Jesus & You: A song where West shares his love for Jesus and how his love of Jesus helps him love his wife that much more because in some ways, they are both helping him become a better man.
A song about how life goes by in the blink of an eye and if you don’t take the chance to cherish the moment in front of you, the people around you, before you know it they will be a thing or someone in your past.
1 Song: If he was leading up to his final few breaths, he would sing a song for the Lord to praise him from this life into the next.
Power Love Sound Mind: A electropop musicality makes up this contemporary christian song based on 2 Timothy 1:7 about the battle in life between choosing faith and fear.
Never Give Up: My second favorite off this album about the true fighting spirit of a believer.
A warrior cry anthem that shouts into the dead and dying hopes of a hurting world about the power of having a dream in your heart and not stopping to achieve it.
Becoming Me ft. Lulu West: A song about the hands that feed you, dress you, and build you up, and how they help you become the person you are.
You are Known: A song about how the world make you feel anonymous and unwanted, but God sees you and wants you to know he knows you and loves you for all that you are and can see all you can be, and believes in that greatness he placed inside you.
Overall, West wows with his seventh studio album that makes any and all believers learn about different aspects of the God they serve and are known by. His songwriting will break through all the noise to share a truth that needs to be spoken to the heart of each and every person alive.
The Smart Cookie Philes 