One thing many people do not know about MercyMe is that they actually were formed in 1994, and released six independent records. For reference, MercyMe has released eight records (and that isn't including Christmas records and exclusives) from 2001's Almost There to 2014's Welcome to the New. Of all of these, The Worship Project is the one that really made the band get the attention of a label. By most accounts, it sold around 60,000 copies, which is very solid for an independent band.

The album opens with "Here For You," a straight-up rock song. The grunge-style guitar lick in the verse is solid, and it really has a fairly strong production value to it. In that sense, it's a stand-out track. "Happy Little Love Song" is also pretty good - it's a lighter rock song, but still a bit heavier than most of the band's early work. Unfortunately, these two songs demonstrate the album's biggest weakness: when writing songs for The Worship Project, the band usually only wrote a verse and chorus. This makes the songs easy to learn and sing. It also makes them very, very repetitive. Both of these songs repeat the same verse and chorus three times - even the musical 'bridge' is just a verse repetition. And they aren't short songs either, running nearly 4 to 5 minutes. The band could have cut the songs to three minutes and still gotten the message across. And really, there isn't much of a message. It's your basic 90's worship stuff.

That being said, the album gets a bit better from there. "It's My Joy" is the standout track on the album. It's a blast: bluesy organs, guitar, and bass in the verse blend perfectly into a great, worshipful chorus. The last minute is also great, mostly being an instrumental jam. This is a wonderful song that I'd love to see the band revisit. "Say Amen" is also solid; it's got a nice acoustic feel and there are some great vocal harmonies in the choruses.

Interestingly, the next three songs were all revisited by the band later. The first is "I Can Only Imagine," which made its first appearance on the album. To be honest, it really isn't that different here than on Almost There. The production value is much lower (the 'strings' on this are obviously keyboard), but it's the same song, and it really is a great song. Next is "Cannot Say Enough," another song that also appeared on Almost There. This one is actually vastly different from its later version. Lyrically, it's a poetic track - there really is only one verse, building up to a crescendo of 'hallelujahs.' I almost like this one more than the later version; it has a certain majesty to it. The final of the three is "Hearts Sing Louder," which the band revisited on their side album The Worship Sessions. The lyrical theme is great - that our hearts should sing louder than our voices - but musically it is just average.

"Psalm 104" is what you would expect. It's Psalm 104 set to music. It has a nice folksy, almost Celtic feel. "Jesus Come Quickly" is probably the weakest track on the album. It has a slow acoustic vibe, but is almost ruined by a cheap computer drum kit. I honestly don't understand why it's there. It just feels out of place (and is really bad). "Beautiful" is very similar to "Jesus Come Quickly," but minus the drum kit. So it's much, much better. And it has a nice lyrical theme, "you have cleaned my heart and soul for your glory, and made me beautiful".

There is also hidden track after "Beautiful." The strange thing is, it's "I Can Only Imagine" again. It's not a reprise - it's the same song. Well, kind of. There are no drums in this version. Everything else is exactly the same. So I guess if you wanted a version of "I Can Only Imagine" without any drums, you can listen to this one.

Overall, this is a solid album, albeit an unspectacular one. There are some nice songs (the best being "It's My Joy," "Say Amen," and "I Can Only Imagine"), but it is very inconsistent. There are some very weak lyrics and a bunch of filler. It's still worth a look, but don't expect a hidden masterpiece.

JFH Reader Review: written by Eric Cunningham, 4/11/16, for Jesusfreakhideout.com