Wow Hits 2010
Various Artists £14.99
I came to this album as someone who only has a few Contemporary Christian Music albums on my iPOD (Rich Mullins, Adam Again and The Lost Dogs if you must know). As such, the only artists on this generous double CD package that meant anything to me were those who had made an impact through their worship songs.
It would be impossible in the space of a short review to provide a review of all 30 tracks here, and as is the nature of these products there will be some that appeal and some that will leave the listener cold.
The overall stylistic theme is one of what may be described as ‘emotional pop/rock’ – lots of sincere close-to-the-mic vocals, sparsely arranged verses and chunky guitar driven choruses (such as the unfortunately titles Matthew West song ‘The Motions’ and . Those not fitting this description had a professional and familiar radio-friendly pop/soul production (e.g. American Idol finalist Mandisa with ‘My Deliverer’). The lyrics are generally very direct in either exhortation or worship – there is little of the vague spirituality that populates the charts this time of year.
CCM has never really taken off here as it has in the US, and the reasons for this have been discussed at length and this, combined with the blurring line between contemporary music and contemporary worship explains the inclusion of people such as Chris Tomlin and David Crowder.
In the end, you either like listening to this style of music (and there is a certain style to it, at least to British ears – I think every artist on the double CD is based in the United States) or you don’t. For the casual listener the format of the ‘Wow’ range is the perfect vehicle to access new artists.
There is no denying the excellent production quality and inspiring lyrics, but for me the standout tracks were those writing songs that were likely to find their way to congregational use rather than the CCM tracks. Still, it represents great value at £14.99.
Review by Ian Matthews
Released by Kingsway Music in the UK
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I think it’s different for everyone, though, I’m sure you’ll find people in the US that think similarly along the lines of your thoughts, but there are people all over the world that enjoy this music. For me, anything musically created to give glory to God is worshipful, which is why I love the WOW Hits collections.
im really excited that hawk nelson is on it again. i love them! its a pretty good line up all around!
I definitely see how you could say all the songs have a certain style to them (I’m American and can still feel it), but luckily it’s a style that I like =) Particularly ‘Slow Fade’ and ‘Forever’ stuck out to me as meaningful. But I guess that’s a good thing about having a cd with so many artists, there’s bound to be something for everyone. Here’s a link to the main site for some pretty interesting extras if anybody’s interested
http://www.wowilovechristianmusic.com
Great post by the way!
-JD
This Wow Hits 2010 has some of the best songs this past year. I think this ranks as one of the best they have put out
This is a great Cd. I love that i get all the best song from the top poeple. This cd is way cool and i was very happy to see a sogn by RED on it.