The album was listed among the 52 CD releases from Sony BMG that were identified as having been shipped with the controversial Extended Copy Protection (XCP) computer software,[3][4] which has been known to cause a number of serious security problems in any Microsoft Windows computer that had the CD inserted at one time and has been regarded as a trojan horse, spyware, or rootkit by a number of security software vendors.[5] Sony discontinued use of the technology on November 11, 2005,[6] and recalled this and other titles affected by XCP, and asked customers to submit copies affected by the software to the company so that it could replace them with copies that did not contain the software.[7]
David Jeffries from AllMusic gave Thankful a four out of five stars rating. He wrote that "blessed with wonderful voices, poignant songwriting skills, and a keen eye for which producers to work with, Mary Mary are a triple-threat who have delivered one exciting album after another. Raising the contemporary gospel bar once again, Mary Mary deserves your attention."[8]Cross Rhythms writer Mike Rimmer found that "the girls are back with their best album yet. Always blessed with strong songwriting and vocal talents, they've refused to compromise the message and this release is packed with excellent stuff and a few surprises."[10]
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