Group 1 Crew’s new single, He Said, features Dove Award winner Chris August, and is arguably one of the best songs out of the three-member Contemporary Christian R&B/pop/rap band. August’s clear, crystal voice certainly does stand out, but Blanca Reyes’ chorus, overflowing with passion and faith, is so convincing and full that He Said is irresistible to the Contemporary Christian pop aficionado. It’s not exactly like...

Sidewalk Prophets’ Live Like That, the carrier single of its new album out March 27 2012 in digital and CD formats across the world, is officially my favorite CCM song of 2012 so far! I love this song! Live Like That is a powerful anthem about taking every moment in one’s life and using that as a moment to glorify Christ. It’s asking the one question that should be on every Christian’s minds: for what exactly am I here on...

Fresh off the heels of her Top 20 hit Suitcases, new Contemporary Christian recording artist Dara Maclean has released Free, another upbeat vocally driven winner from her debut CD, You Got My Attention. Maclean certainly has grabbed the attention of Christian AC programmers, who are quickly adding Free into their playlists and making the new track one of the fastest growing songs at Christian AC the past two weeks. Personally, I think Suitcases...

Fanboy alert: Jason Mraz is back! AAAAACCCCKKKK!!! *deep breath* I first heard Jason Mraz’s I Won’t Give Up at his live acoustic Philippine concert with Toca Rivera last late year at the Araneta Coliseum, and I remember my wife and I both being extremely moved by I Won’t Give Up; we were both in tears at song’s end. Knowing what little we knew about his marriage, we were stunned into silence by how eloquently he put into...

Nobody does a great piano ballad like Sara Groves. Nichole Nordeman’s Beautiful For Me and Audrey Assad’s Restless notwithstanding, Sara Groves’ Eyes on the Prize is one of the loveliest piano ballads released in the past few months. I love her expressive voice and her passionate delivery on this new single from her latest opus, Invisible Empires. Steve Mason of Jars of Clay makes a welcome cameo on Eyes on the Prize,...

My wife, noted KPop writer Caths Deen, recently gave me for an anniversary present the latest album of Contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Matthew West. The Story of Your Life CD/DVD package is one of the best CCM albums I’ve ever heard for a variety of reasons, and the criminal absence of a #1 Billboard hit from this offering, Matthew’s first since his indie label debut, Sellout, does not undermine the fact that this is a...