The album's production, which followed the success of "I Can Only Imagine" on Christian radio, was described by lead singer Bart Millard as "nerve-racking"; the album musically represents a shift in the band's musical style, with critics variously identifying it as roots rock, pop rock, or adult contemporary.

[4] Following the success of "I Can Only Imagine, which became the group's first major hit on Christian radio and received the Song of the Year award at the Dove Awards, the band felt that they were more closely associated with the adult contemporary genre than their roots as a rock band; Millard described Spoken For as "a little edgier" than that reputation.

[4] Millard said the album was "a little bit more on the rock side" and that the major goal was to provide "singable" songs suitable for corporate worship.

[7][9] Allmusic described it as having "ringing guitar melodies, infectious vocal harmonies, atmospheric keyboards, and charging, often exhilarating rhythms".

[12] Russ Breimeier of Christianity Today described the album's lyrics as adopting a "broader" definition of worship than the band had previously used, being "more thoughtful" but "still catchy and vertically focused".

[7] The album's title track was described as "haunting";[8] lyrically, it "offers a look at Jesus recognizing His children at heaven’s gate".

[19] The song spent 23 weeks at number one on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, a record that stood for over 10 years before being passed in August 2014 by Hillsong United's single Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)",[20] but remains the record on the component Christian Airplay chart.

[7][9][11] Allmusic gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, saying that MercyMe "shows its knack for mating spiritual lyrics to state-of-the-art pop-rock".

[8] Wendy Lee Nentwig of Crosswalk.com praised the band's musical and lyrical growth since their debut effort, as well as the "passionate intensity and emotion" of lead singer Bart Millard's vocals.

[11] Marcia Bartenhagen of CCM Magazine praised the band's vocals and progression in songwriting and musical style, but felt the album "occasionally sways to the triteness so often found on AC/pop projects".

[9] Tim Harms of Baptist Press called Spoken For a major improvement over Almost There and said it "feels more coherent and flows smoother and it flourishes in vertical lyrics".

[38] All songs written by Jim Bryson, Nathan Cochran, Pete Kipley, Bart Millard, Mike Scheuchzer and Robby Shaffer except where noted.