Not Without Love is the second studio album from CCM

Contemporary Christian music

Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...

 musician Jimmy Needham

Jimmy Needham

Jimmy Needham is an American contemporary Christian musician signed to Inpop Records. His second Inpop studio album, Not Without Love, was released on August 19, 2008...

. It was released on August 19, 2008 through Inpop Records

Inpop Records

Inpop Records is an independent contemporary Christian music record label based in Franklin, Tennessee, USA. It was launched in July 1999 by Australians Peter Furler, Dale Bray, and Wes Campbell...

 in the United States. The album's lead single "A Breath or Two" was released prior to the album, and reached #11 on Christian contemporary hit radio

Contemporary hit radio

Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

.

Musical style

Similar to his last album, Speak

Speak (Jimmy Needham album)

Speak is the first major studio album from CCM musician Jimmy Needham. It was released on August 15, 2006 under Inpop Records in the United States.-Track listing:#"I Am New" – 3:15#"Lost at Sea" – 4:00#"Fence Riders" – 3:30#"Dearly Loved" – 4:18...

, Jimmy Needham has frequently been compared to Jason Mraz

Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...

 in musical style, as well as John Mayer

John Mayer

John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...

 and Marc Broussard

Marc Broussard

Marc Broussard is an American singer/songwriter. His style is best described as "Bayou Soul," a mix of funk, blues, R&B, rock, and pop, matched with distinct Southern roots...

. Not Without Loves main genre is alternative CCM, although Needham takes influence from other styles such as rock

Christian rock

Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...

 and blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 with a "jazzy pop" sound.

Lyrics

The lyrical songwriting in Not Without Love has often been noted as having "clever wordplay" similar to pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

/jazz musician Jason Mraz

Jason Mraz

Jason Thomas Mraz , also known as Mr. AZ and Mr. Raz, is an American singer-songwriter. Mraz released his debut album, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which contained the hit single "The Remedy ", in 2002, but it was not until the release of his second album, "Mr. A-Z", in 2005, that Mraz achieved...

. Needham was newly married when writing the album, and two songs were written about his wife Kelly Needham. "Firefly" is a lighthearted, "ragtime style" song about marriage, while "Unfailing Love (Kelly's Song)" is a ballad that Needham sang at his wedding, originally written as a proposal to Kelly.

Promotion and release

In promotion of the album, Not Without Loves first single, "A Breath or Two", was released to radios in mid-2008. The album was subsequently released on August 19, 2008 in the U.S. under the Inpop

Inpop Records

Inpop Records is an independent contemporary Christian music record label based in Franklin, Tennessee, USA. It was launched in July 1999 by Australians Peter Furler, Dale Bray, and Wes Campbell...

 label. It debuted at number 8 on both the Christian AC Soundscan and Overall Christian Digital charts. Later in the year, Needham guested on Christian rock

Christian rock

Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...

 band BarlowGirl

BarlowGirl

BarlowGirl is an American Christian rock–CCM all-female band from Chicago, Illinois. The band is composed of sisters Alyssa , Rebecca , and Lauren Barlow . The band has won several awards in their genre; their song "Never Alone" was the longest running No...

's Million Voices Tour along with Brooke Barrettsmith

Brooke Barrettsmith

Brooke Elizabeth Barrettsmith is an Christian pop/rock songwriter and musician from Spring Grove, Illinois. She was a former contestant of the reality television show American Idol during its fifth season in 2006.-Biography:...

; the tour began on September 12 in Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

, and ran until mid-November 2008. "A Breath or Two" also garnered success, reaching #13 on R&R

Radio & Records

Radio & Records was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It originally started out as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006, up until its final issue in 2009.-History:The company was founded in 1973 and...

's Christian CHR

Contemporary hit radio

Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

 radio chart by the week of September 4, and reached a peak of at least #11 through early 2009. The album's second single, "Forgiven and Loved", was released early in the year near the same time.

Reception

Not Without Love received generally positive reviews from critics. Allmusic reviewer Jared Johnson noted that Jimmy Needham "stepped up his game" with his second release, having better production quality than his debut album; Johnson claimed that "Christian music lovers need a lot more like this".

Track listing

1. "Come Around" – 3:25
2. "A Breath or Two" – 3:23
3. "Hurricane" – 3:59
4. "Firefly" – 2:36
5. "Forgiven and Loved" – 3:29
6. "Before and After" – 3:29
7. "Tossed by the Wind" – 3:56
8. "Unfailing Love (Kelly's Song)" – 3:56
9. "Rend" – 3:24
10. "The Author" – 3:20
11. "The Great Love Story" – 4:48
12. "Not Without Love (The Benediction)" – 1:49