God Is Gracious

So, I took a listen to Passion’s LP sampler.  Call me a hater, but I am disappointed in his work.  Don’t get me wrong, the quality was FRESH!  Jesse Barrera produces great quality music.  But to be honest, I expected more from Jeremy. 

Let’s start off with “Lemonade”, which is one of the greatest Internet songs of all time.  I really hope that song crescendos into something more stronger because the way the song is stripped down to just vocals and a ukelele track doesn’t really impress me.  The original studio version wasn’t impressive either.  Lemonade should be just a guitar and Jeremy’s vocals and maybe a backing string section.  Lemonade is an intimate, fall in love track, not a don’t-worry-be-happy type of song.  Lemonade is an acoustic Cali track, not a Hawaiian track.  Lemonade should have “Passion” written all over it and not Joseph Vincent.

“Trace” is a good song, but it’s nothing that we’ve heard before.  It sounds like “Paper Airplanes” which was basically an Adam Levine ripoff.  The only reason I look forward to listening to that song is because of Tori Kelly, who doesn’t copy off of anybody.

When “Well Done” was debuted on Passion’s myspace, it was dope.  I loved the drums and perfect combination of the guitar and grand and electric piano.  In the “for more than a feeling” LP, it has this jazzy-live vibe that I’m not feeling.  If it isn’t broke to begin with, don’t fix it!

If any song really caught my ear, it was “Undefined”.  It kind of reminded me of Ryan Leslie’s “Quicksand”, although it’s not really biting anybody.  This is something that I can listen to and say, this has potential.

The whole album has a live-jazzy, Robin Thickesque vibe, and I guess that’s Passion’s style.  BUT, for his first legit album, I would’ve expected for something that screams at me rather than talks to me.  There were too many “album fillers” and not enough hits.  I’m not talking about songs that are radio-friendly, but songs that give you emotion.  Passion feels he can gamble on album fillers because he has one of the biggest fanbases on the internet.  I guess because he’s pretty famous, he feels he doesn’t need to have an album that shouts “I’m Passion!.”  I know for a fact, that if I were to put out an album myself, I’d make sure that every penny you spend is worth it.  I wouldn’t B.S. you with album fillers.  I’m all about telling a story, but you don’t have to compensate the message with the music.  My grade for “For More Than A Feeling” is a B-.

Passion can do better and he knows it.