Reviewed by Tony Cummings

One cannot stress enough how important the various artists/various record companies WoW album series has been in building the marketplace for Christianmusic. It's a simple idea. Cuts from the biggest names on the American scene with one or two "bonus tracks" from debut album artists the wiley corporations have high hopes are in the process of becoming seriously big. (The bonus acts this time are the Latin popsters Salvador, the effervescent pop rockers Earthsuit soon to be given a bug UK push by Fierce!/Furious? - and the pop dance duo V*enna). But it's the 30 other acts on this two CD set which will set the pulse racing of the corporate bean counters and, more importantly, the CD rack browser looking for an economic smorgasbord of Christian music talent. Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W Smith, Third Day, Jars Of Clay, Delirious?, dc Talk, Rebecca St James, Jaci Velasquez, MaryMary are all here. As with any sampler, the width of musical styles ensures that some tracks are bound to fall outside the scope of most musical palates (is a CCM buff alive who enthuses about both the raw rapcore of P.O.D. and the overblown inspirational balladry of CeCe Winans?). But with such a wealth of cuts to choose from that matters little.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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