Sign up for our free newsletter:

Word Records' fledgling Absolute franchise should get a big "E" for effort. Since its inception, the brand has become the poor man's version of the more established WoW Hits series, trying hard to fill a disc's worth of space with as much label star power as possible, and then resorting to the B-list of less established talent when the options run out. In many ways, the product line is similar to those Totally compilations that appear regularly in popular music—a lot of the tracks featured are pretty good, but they aren't nearly as notable as those that show up on your average Now That's What I Call Music! anthology.

At least nominally, Absolute All Time Favorites appears to be the most ambitious set to date, attempting to compile on a single disc some of Christian music's favorite songs ever (fat chance). Since we're not talking "best" here, and "favorite" is such a subjective term, the Absolute masterminds have more leeway to be creative with the track listing, giving way to some of the genre's most prominent material, particularly diva anthems—i.e. Amy Grant's "El Shaddai," Jaci Velasquez's "On My Knees," Nicole C. Mullen's "Redeemer," Rachael Lampa's "Blessed."

Other favorites—like Chris Rice's "Deep Enough to Dream," Ginny Owens' "Free," Sixpence None the Richer's "Breathe Your Name," and Mark Schultz's "Remember Me"—bring context and variety to a generally good compilation, but the rest of the disc gets more fanciful with the inclusions. Songs like Building 429's "Glory Defined," Superchic[k]'s "Pure," BarlowGirl's "Never Alone," and Big Daddy Weave's "Audience of One" were unquestionably huge hits for their time, but do they really measure up as timeless classics in the history of Christian pop/rock? Other choices (particularly the three bonus tracks) feel more like self-promotion, as if this were one of those $2.99 samplers used to introduce new artists—not what you'd expect in an assortment of all-time favorites.

© Andree Farias, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

Click here to view our music review archives.

Visit the artist pages for related interviews and reviews.

				Try an Issue of Today's Christian RISK-FREE! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Today's Christian coming, honor your invoice for just $17.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issues are yours to keep, regardless. Give Today's Christian as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!