Filipino-Christian Blogger Ganns Deen » Matthew West

Ganns’ Year-end Top 10s for 2011

Ganns — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:16:00 +0000

At some point in 2011, my Top 10 kinda went offline because my laptop crashed and took the Top 10 with it. After that, it was pretty much to my iTunes to determine what songs should go to #1. Having said all that, this is my personal Top 10 for the year 2011, divided into Christian and Secular (Top 40). Just sharing. (^^,)

CHRISTIAN TOP 10
1. Stronger. Mandisa
2. Good Morning. Mandisa
3. Suitcases. Dara MacLean
4. Make a Move. Royal Tailor
5. Hanging On. Britt Nicole
6. God Is Still God. Heather Williams
7. Hold Me Together. Royal Tailor
8. Hold Me. Jamie Grace feat TobyMac
9. Strong Enough. Matthew West
10. Blessings. Laura Story

No surprise here, Mandisa romps away with the Top two slots on the year-end Top 10, with Stronger edging out Good Morning. The real surprise is Royal Tailor, which has two songs in the final Top 10, a strong finish for both Make A Move and Hold Me Together. Overall, these songs cap what I felt was a weak year in Christian music, with no songs coming out that were particularly groundbreaking or attaching themselves to my brain in an emotional and spiritual way.

SECULAR TOP 10
1. Beautiful Target. B1A4
2. Pinocchio. f(x)
3. Love is Move. Secret
4. Sixth Sense. Brown-Eyed Girls
5. I Am The Best. 2NE1
6. You Know. Piggy Dolls
7. The Boys. Girls’ Generation
8. Don’t Go Home. GD & Top
9. Going Crazy. Song Jieun featuring Bang Yong Guk
10. Be My Baby. Wonder Girls

As you can see, every song on my 2011 secular chart Top 10 is a K-Pop song. That’s really quite impressive, considering I don’t understand a single word they’re saying. (That’s a joke. I have translations.) But yeah, it’s the dominant year of K-Pop on my personal chart, which tells me I really should start featuring more K-Pop on my website because it’s what I seem to be listening to a lot nowadays. Honorable mentions for the year, however, do go to five topnotch (English) songs that just didn’t have enough space on this chart’s Top 10: Adele’s brilliant Rolling in the Deep, David Cook’s woefully underappreciated The Last Goodbye, Beyonce’s amazing old-school throwback Love On Top, Fantasia’s delightful Collard Greens and Cornbread, and Maroon 5/Christina Aguilera’s Moves Like Jagger.

Matthew West, “The Heart of Christmas”

Ganns — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:51:41 +0000

Here’s the truth: I will probably never stop singing the praises of God, Jesus, and Matthew West, in that order. LOL The American singer-songwriter, who is responsible for some of recent Contemporary Christian music’s most outstanding songs, including the recent #1 Courageous by Casting Crowns and his own #1 hits You Are Everything and The Motions, has released The Heart of Christmas, off his full-length Christmas CD of the same time.

Matthew’s previous Christmas single, One Last Christmas, told the story of the Lockes, whose son, Dax, fought a brave battle with leukemia. The Lockes’ amazing story was made into a GMC television movie, which airs this Christmas Eve in the United States. The song The Heart of Christmas is inspired by the Lockes’ story, and overflows with hope and inspiration. The CD itself is jampacked with hits – previous radio smashes Christmas Makes Me Cry (with Mandisa), Give This Christmas Away (with Amy Grant), the aforementioned One Last Christmas, and now this surefire Top 10 hit, The Heart of Christmas. This is one Christmas CD I cannot afford not to have, and you would do best to pick one up too.

I’ve said this before: Matthew West is one of CCM’s most prolific, anointed, inspired storytellers, and The Heart of Christmas underscores his talent and passion for finding the right story, sensitively selecting the lesson or essence in it, using the right words, and crafting the perfect melody. It’s a rare gift, and I am so blessed that God’s Name is being glorified as Matthew uses it for his Savior’s fame. Once again, Matthew, you have done it, oh, you’ve done it.

THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS Lyrics
Matthew West

I’m gonna make a wish this Christmas
I’m gonna say a little prayer
I’m gonna stop here for a moment
Before the moment disappears

The world’s in a hurry this December
City streets and shopping malls
I wish we could slow down and remember
The meaning of it all

Wherever you are, no matter how far
Come back to the heart, the heart of Christmas
Live while you can, cherish the moment
The ones that you love, make sure they know it
Don’t miss it, the heart of Christmas

Let’s make it feel the way it used to
Let’s find that wonder of a child
You can see the magic all around you
Come on, and open up your eyes

You can find it in the warm embrace of your family
Or calling up a long lost friend
You can even find it in the eyes of stranger
When you reach out a helping hand

In the shadow of a steeple
In a star that lights the way
You will find Him in a manger
The heart of Christmas has a name

I’m gonna make a wish this Christmas
I’m gonna say a little prayer

Wherever you are, no matter how far
Come back to the heart, the heart of Christmas
Live while you can and cherish the moment
The ones that you love, make sure they know it

Matthew West, “One Last Christmas”

Ganns — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:34:53 +0000

There is a reason why Matthew West is my favorite Contemporary Christian songwriter of all time: he knows how to tell a story, he knows how to build a beautiful melody around his words, and almost every song he makes is a musical masterpiece. His latest single, One Last Christmas, is the story of Dax Locke, a little boy was was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at thirteen months. The song tells the story of how his parents, determined to let Dax see Christmas, began to set up Christmas early, with decorations festooning their home. Soon, the entire community caught on, and the whole town followed afterward. A website was built to tell his story, and soon pictures from all over the world came in, where homes were decorated in his honor. Today, Matthew and his parents are trying to raise enough money to run the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, that took such wonderful care of their son, for one day. The total cost to run St. Jude’s for one day is $1.6 million dollars. Already, they have raised a quarter of a million dollars. You can donate to their beautiful cause here.

Friends, I can’t tell you how affected I am by Matthew West’s One Last Christmas. Not even twenty seconds into the video, I was crying already, and my heart goes out to the Locke family. Matthew hit the nail on the head: “it’s the news no one hopes for, every parent’s greatest fear, finding out the child you love so much might not make it through the year.” I look at Nathan and Nicki, and when even the slightest wisp of fear comes into my heart for them, it takes all my strength and faith to command those negative thoughts at bay. Watching this video, and the beautiful memories the Locke couple made with their little boy, reminds us of the things we should hold close and dear, the stuff that really matters. But you know what? God remains sovereign, and he’s going to use the legacy of this little boy, this beautiful baby boy, to touch lives and generations. And Matthew, you’ve done it again. God bless you.

ONE LAST CHRISTMAS Lyrics
Matthew West

It’s the news that no one hopes for,
Every parent’s greatest fear
Finding out the child you love so much
Might not make it through the year
Now the thought of spending Christmas
Without him just feels wrong
They’ve been praying for a miracle,
Now they’re praying he can just hold on

For one last Christmas one last time
One last season when the world is right
One more telling of the story
One more verse of Silent Night
They’d give anything so he could have
One last Christmas

Middle of September
Still seventy degrees
Daddy climbs up in the attic
Brings down candles
Hangs the lights on all the trees
Then the neighbors started asking
And pretty soon word got around
First it was the neighborhood,
Before too long they lit up that whole town

For one last Christmas one last time
One last season when the world is right
One more telling of the story
One more verse of Silent Night
They’d give anything so he could have
One last Christmas

Twenty-seventh of October,
His time was wearing thin
Friends and family, even strangers
That they didn’t know brought presents in
He was weak but he was smiling
Like there was nothing even wrong
They said he wouldn’t make it,
Looks like he got to see it after all

For one last Christmas one last time
One last season when the world is right
One more telling of the story
One more verse of Silent Night
They’d give anything so he could have
One last Christmas

Matthew West, “My Own Little World”

Ganns — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:45:33 +0000

For the record, my favorite Contemporary Christian singer/songwriter is Matthew West. I’ve followed his music ever since More came out in 2003, off his spectacular major-label debut CD, Happy; I love him so much that he has his own category on my website (the only other singer who has that? His labelmate Mandisa). The two albums that followed, History and Something To Say, just upped the ante for Matthew; each CD was clearly better than its predecessor. Something to Say, in particular, was a superb, stellar, incomparable album that birthed two #1 hits and changed my life in a way that no previous Contemporary Christian CD had done. So I have high hopes of The Story of Your Life, which drops October 5, 2010.

Apparently, the first single off The Story of Your Life is a track called My Own Little World. For The Story of Your Life, Matthew invited his fans to submit the stories of their lives, and holed himself up in a little cabin in the middle of nowhere to pray over, collate, and create new material inspired by their stories. (He also met a Cabin Mouse, but that’s another story.) He received more than 10,000 stories, and while I’m sure that certainly wasn’t easy, he came up with several songs that made the cut, so to speak. The new CD, according to New Release Tuesday, run the gamut of human experience, “from joy to sorrow, struggle to victory, and life and death.” Some of the tracks include Family Tree (which “describes how Christ gives us a new identity and legacy and life”), Broken Girl (which “tragically recounts the countless stories Matthew received about sexual abuse – and describes the healing and redemption that Christ promises”) and One Less, which chronicles the joy of adoption and helping those most in need. (Note to self: when the record’s out, compare One Less to Mark Schultz’s Everything To Me, which is still my template for songs about adoption.)

My Own Little World, however, puts everything in perspective. It describes the transformation of a person from one who apparently lives an apathetic lifestyle, to one who genuinely wishes to change the world for the better. Written along the vein of Brandon Heath’s Give Me Your Eyes or mikeschair’s Keep Changing The World, My Own Little World is catchy and inspiring, although admittedly, it initially underwhelmed me, given the quality of Matthew’s three previous carriers. (More and You Are Everything both topped the Christian chars, while Thirteen (Next Thing You Know) was a decidedly catchy song, one of my favorites; I will never understand why it didn’t go to #1.) But then again, I was also underwhelmed by Brandon Heath’s Give Me Your Eyes, which was a monster hit last year, so I guess I’m no longer the demographic.

Regardless, My Own Little World bodes well for the whole CD, which I will definitely order (hopefully off MusiChristian.com, which gets autographed CDs off Sparrow artists). If history bears itself out, and Matthew continues to improve with every new album, well, The Story of Your Life could be Matthew’s best album to date.

Listen to Matthew West’s My Own Little World

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

MY OWN LITTLE WORLD Lyrics
Matthew West

In my own little world it hardly ever rains
I’ve never gone hungry or always felt safe
I got some money in my pocket
shoes on my feet
In m own little world
Population me

I try to stay awake through the Sunday morning church
I throw a twenty in the plate but I never give ’til it hurts
and I turn off the news when I don’t like what I see
it’s easy to do when it’s population me

What if there’s a bigger picture
what if I’m missing out
What if there’s a greater purpose
I could be living right now
outside my own little world
Wooh

Stopped at the red light, looked out my window
Outside the car, saw a sign, said “Help this homeless widow”
Just above this sign was the face of a human
i thought to myself, “God, what have I been doing?”

So I rolled down my window and I looked her in the eye
Oh how many times have I just passed her by
I gave her some money then I drove on through
in my own little world there’s Population two

What if there’s a bigger picture
what if I’m missing out
What if there’s a greater purpose
I could be living right now
outside my own little world
Wooh

whoa yeah
whoa yeah
whoa

Start breaking my heart for what breaks Yours
give me open hands and open doors
put Your light in my eyes and let me see
that my own little world is not about me

What if there’s a bigger picture
what if I’m missing out
Show me there’s a greater purpose
I could be living right now
outside my own little world
Wooh
My own little world yeah
My own little world woo

Five Christian songwriters to love

Ganns — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:02:57 +0000

As a Filipino-Christian songwriter, it is only natural that I am bound to have influences when it comes to my songwriting. There are many, many amazing Christian songwriters out there, including Casting Crowns’ Mark Hall, MercyMe’s Bart Billard, Aaron Shust, Nichole Nordeman, Nicole C. Mullen, Rich Mullins, and the incomparable Bill and Gloria Gaither. I started listening to Christian music in 1990 – even though I only really got to know Jesus in 2001 – and have been writing music about and for Him ever since.

These are my five favorite Christian songwriters, just to share:

1. Steven Curtis Chapman. Chapman has won the Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year 10 out of the past 20 years, which is testament to the quality of his material (and to the predictability of the GMA members, ooh, burn). Chapman writes primarily for himself; his most popular work is arguably I Will Be Here, a wedding staple. Other popular Chapman singles that topped the Christian charts include Live Out Loud, Magnificent Obsession, Yours, and most recently, Heaven is the Face.

2. Michael W. Smith. Smith is probably the most popular crossover Christian artist of the 1990s, thanks to his breakout hit Place in This World. Other popular songs that hit the Hot 100 include I Will Be Here For You (co-written with Diane Warren), For You, and Love Me Good. I have every single Smitty album since Go West Young Man; that’s how much I love Michael W. Smith.

3. Cindy Morgan. A Dove Award winner in 2008 for Songwriter of the Year, Cindy is a prolific songwriter and singer in her own right. She has actually topped my chart four times (without my knowing it), being one of the songwriters behind Michael W. Smith’s Christmas Day, Mandisa’s He Is With You, Brit Nicole’s Set the World on Fire, and Mark Schultz’s phenomenal Letters From War.

4. Ronnie Freeman. Ronnie Freeman is an independent singer and songwriter who has created some of Christian AC/Inspo’s more enduring melodies. He is responsible for Mandisa’s He Is With You (co-writing it with Cindy Morgan) and God Speaking. He is currently #1 on my personal Top 10 as of this writing, having co-written Ashmont Hill’s Show My Love.

5. Matthew West. I saved the Christian songwriter I love best for last. Matthew West is my hero; it is my dream is to one day meet Matthew West. Matthew has this God-given ability to take a lyric and give it the perfect melody in such a way that it just hits you – WHAM! – in the gut, and knocks the wind out of you as you realize the sheer depth of what he just communicated in song. Matthew can do it all – he can sing, he can write, he can play instruments – and do it with excellence. He can write humorous, tongue-in-cheek songs; he can write gut-wrenching ballads; he can write stadium-rocking anthems. He’s had several chart-topping songs, including More, Only Grace, You Are Everything, Something to Say, Save a Place For Me, and his biggest hit to date, The Motions. He’s also written hit songs for some of Christian music’s more popular names, including Natalie Grant (Perfect People), Mandisa (Only the World), and Melissa Greene (Next Step).

Who are your favorite songwriters, Christian or otherwise?

Billboard’s Top Christian Songs for 2009 and for the decade

Ganns — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:48:08 +0000

Billboard.com has released its 2009 Year-Ender charts (okay, they did it the first week of December, but I didn’t have time to check it out until today). According to the chart, The Motions by Matthew West is the top Christian song of 2009, according to Billboard.com, and rightly so. The Motions spent more than a month at at #1, and changed thousands of lives with its encouraging message. Here are the Top 10 Christian songs of 2009:

1. The Motions, Matthew West
2. By Your Side, Tenth Avenue North
3. Revelation Song, Phillips, Craig & Dean
4. There Will Be A Day, Jeremy Camp
5. I Will Rise, Chris Tomlin
6. More Beautiful You, Jonny Diaz
7. Lead Me To The Cross, Chris and Conrad
8. Wait and See, Brandon Heath
9. Born Again, Third Day feat. Lacey Mosley
10. Free to Be Me, Francesca Battistelli

Pleasantly surprised to see Chris and Conrad’s Lead Me to the Cross in the Top 10; obviously, you don’t have to finish at #1 to place well; you can be consistent. (The same kind of chart longevity boded well for By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North, as we’ll see later.) Some other notable chart positions include Mandisa’s My Deliverer, my #1 song of 2009, finishes at #26; Britt Nicole’s The Lost Get Found finishes at #18, and Jimmy Needham’s Forgiven and Loved, also in my Top 5, a notch above Mandisa at #25.

What? You’ve never heard “The Motions”? Okay, click here.

Billboard also published a best-of for the decade, (2000-2009, I imagine), and these were the Top 10 Christian songs of the decade:

1. Word of God Speak, MercyMe
2. My Savior My God, Aaron Shust
3. By Your Side, Tenth Avenue North
4. The Motions, Matthew West
5. Give Me Your Eyes, Brandon Heath
6. East to West, Casting Crowns
7. Blessed Be Your Name, tree63
8. There Will Be A Day, Jeremy Camp
9. You Are My King (Amazing Love), Newsboys
10. Voice of Truth, Casting Crowns

Word of God Speak is a fantastic track, and MercyMe is a fantastic band. How can you top I Can Only Imagine? You can’t, but Word of God Speak came really close. A bit surprised that My Savior My God is #2 for the decade, especially since I thought Create Again was Shust’s masterpiece, but that single tanked. By Your Side is an absolutely phenomenal song; it was powerful in 2008, and powerful in 2009 to actually finish ahead of Matthew West’s The Motions, which finishes at #4 for the decade. No small feat for Matthew, whose You Are Everything – the first single off Something to Say, and a track I feel is superior to The Motions - finishes #17 for the decade. (Matthew is currently #1 today on the Christian charts with Give Christmas Away, a duet with Amy Grant off the OST of the new VeggieTales video.) (BTW, the highest-ranked female vocal for the decade? A guest spot by Mandisa on Lose Your Soul, #29 for the decade. Highest-ranked solo female vocal? Francesca Battistelli, squeaking in with Free to Be Me at #40.)

What? You’ve never heard “Word of God Speak”? Okay, click here.

Waitaminute, you’ve never heard “By Your Side” either? All right, click here.

To see the Top 10 Christian songs in the USA as of this week, please click here.

Matthew West debuts “The Motions” video

Ganns — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:08:36 +0000

Contemporary Christian singer and songwriter Matthew West has released his first (!) music video, a powerful visual accompaniment to The Motions, the third single off his third album Something To Say. While I have to admit it a wee bit unusual for Sparrow Records to go-signal a video for a relatively late single – You Are Everything comes to mind as a song more deserving of a video, and I would’ve really enjoyed seeing videos for More, Next Thing You Know, and History – I have to admit it’s always a good thing. Matthew deserves this one, definitely.

I am loving this week!

Ganns — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:06:04 +0000

As if I weren’t already giddy enoughÂ from Mandisa’s shout-out! God has seen fit to take my Thursday to the next level by just throwing blessing upon blessing in my face!

You are rocking my world, Father!

On Radio&Records.com, the Christian AC charts are showing the progress of my favorite songs, which softens the blow of Christian radio’s woeful reaction to Aaron Shust’s spectacular Create Again as well as the drop to #4 of Francesca Battistelli’s Free to Be Me. Mandisa’s My Deliverer is up two notches to #16 in its fifth week, Matthew West’s The Motions is at #6 for a second week but registers one of the three greatest gains of all songs on the chart, and Jimmy Needham is finally getting much-deserved radio success with Forgiven and Loved. There are several new songs I will probably stream starting next week, but I’m leaning more towards More Beautiful You by Jonny Diaz, Uncommon by Greg Long & Kristy Starling, and Pull Me Out by Bebo Norman.

On Inspo, check it out! Avalon’s Still My God is the Greatest Gainer of the week (#53 spins over last week), with Ashmont Hill’s Gifted Response third-greatest (35 spins), good enough for the song to debut in the Top 20 of the chart. Song of Glory did pretty well, peaking at #5 at Inspo, and I believe Gifted Response will do even better! Lord, answer my prayer! Bring Avalon back to the main chart!! Still My God can do it!!

Over at Gospel, Mary Mary’s God In Me actually loses airplay at #16, but over at Billboard, it’s now Top 20 at the Dance/Club Play chart!

On Amazon.com, Mandisa’s Freedom is now #848 overall, up from 2,604 just three days ago! WOOT! I hope the Fandisas were able to preorder enough for Freedom to debut in the Billboard 200. We didn’t have much time to build the buzz, but we still have five days til D-Day, then seven days before Freedom is expected to make chart impact on the Billboard album charts. #1 on Contemporary Christian album charts, let’s go!!

This leaves me with just one question for the folks over at Gotee: y’all dropped the ball with Ayiesha Woods’ Love Like This, so what’s the second single, eh? *whispers New Beginnings cough cough Refine Me*

You can always return to GannsDeen.com on Mondays (Sundays in the USA) to check out new recommendations for the week, but I just need to say that Israel Houghton‘s The Power of One drops the same day as Mandisa! (Great review here.) Buy The Power of One, featuring the new single, My Tribute, in tandem with Mandisa on Amazon and get Super Shipper Saving! Woot!

Ganns recommends: Morning Always Comes by Mollye Rees

The one promoting Mandisa’s “Freedom”

Ganns — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:40:35 +0000

Contemporary Christian superstar Mandisa is following up her massive debut album, True Beauty, with a spectacular new album titled Freedom, which hits stores on March 24, 2009.

While True Beauty was definitely one of the best Contemporary Christian debut albums in 2007, selling over 160,000 copies and spawning the hit singles Only The World, God Speaking, and Voice of a Savior, Freedom shows Mandisa is not a woman who rests on her laurels. Teaming up again with Dove Award-winning (and my favorite CCM) producer Brown Bannister (Avalon, Amy Grant) and Christopher Stevens (Matthew West, TobyMac) to produce an album that will undoubtedly challenge and inspire.

The first single, My Deliverer, is now Top 20 at Christian AC (#18 on Billboard and RadioandRecords.com); it topped my personal chart for three weeks. According to poorly edited Sparrow Records press releases circulating around the Internet, “the overarching theme of the album is the unique freedom that comes from a relationship with Christ. This unbelievable freedom is wide reaching and includes the right to be free from any bondage that binds us, free from sin, free from fear, free from the anxieties of this world, and much more. Each song on the album addresses a different aspect of this freedom: “Not Guilty” illustrates that while our sin would condemn us, Jesus paid the penalty to set us free; “Definition of Me” shows how we are free from society’s standards of value and beauty; “You Wouldn’t Cry” is a testimony of one who has been set free from this world and now enjoys the full privileges of heavenly citizenship; “My Deliverer” and “Freedom Song” are praise celebrations for our great God who has truly set us free.”

If you’d like to buy Freedom, there’s a great deal here at MusiChristian.com that gets you her autograph! (Once again, we foreign fans are shut out; EMI won’t ship outside of the USA. BOO TO YOU, EMI!) If you’d like to purchase from more traditional outlets, you can try Amazon.com’s listing here (Help it rise up the ranks! It’s currently 2,604th overall, what the heck. Come on, Sparrow Records, throw some marketing muscle into this CD!!).

Freedom! Buy your copy today! Freedom!

Mandisa’s “It’s Christmas” drops October 14!

Ganns — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:02:59 +0000

American Idol Season Five finalist and Contemporary Christian star Mandisa is releasing her second full-length album, a holiday stocking stuffer titled It’s Christmason October 14, 2008.

Some of the songs from Mandisa’s 2007 Christmas EP Christmas Joy are featured in the album. She will also air a Christmas TV special on TBN titled Mandisa & Friends Christmas Special sometime in November 2008. My girl Mandisa is HOT.

Track list after the jump.

It’s Christmas track list
1. What Christmas Means to Me
2. Christmas Makes Me Cry (feat. Matthew West)
3. O Holy Night
4. Christmas Day (feat. Michael W. Smith)
5. Feliz Navidad / Joy To the World Medley
6. Little Drummer Boy
7. Silent Night
8. Children Go Where I Send Thee
9. The “Bell Medley” (Silver Bells / Carol Of The Bells / Caroling, Caroling)
10. Mary’s Little Boy Child