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WOW 2000 (1999)
For the past four years, EMI Christian Music Group, Provident Music Distribution, and Word Entertainment Inc. have been quenching listeners' thirsts for phenomenal music with a Christ-centered message by bringing together the very best in Christian music. The latest installment in the WoW series, WoW 2000, lives up to its predecessors in every way, shape, and form and sets some new standards for future compilations.Like WoWs 1997-99, W2K separates the selections into two genres: Pop/Contemporary on the silver disk, and anything your Southern Gospel parents would cringe at on the purple disk. Whatever mood you're in, the purple disk most likely has a song for it. Want an upbeat tune that you can jump around to? Try delirious?'s "Gravity", SONICFLOOd's "I Want to Know You", "Basic Instructions" by Burlap to Cashmere, or "The Rumor Weed Song" by The W's. Looking for something a little more easy-going? "No One Loves Me Like You" by Jars of Clay, "Consume Me" by dc Talk, "I've Always Loved You" by Third Day, or even Newsboys' rather frightening "Love Liberty Disco" will do the trick. The purple disk also contains two bonus cuts: "New Way to Be Human" by Switchfoot and LaRue's "Waiting Room."
The silver disk is a bit more laid back, although not without its share of gems. Track #3, "I Will Be Your Friend" by Michael W. Smith will both please and surprise most Smitty fans, as there is a noticeable change in his style. Other ear-openers on the silver disk include Avalon's "Can't Live a Day", Anointed's "Revive Us", FFH's "One of These Days" and, of course, "Cartoons" by Chris Rice. On the more worshipful side are "Breathe" by Sixpence None the Richer, "Omega" by Rebecca St. James, and the hard-to-find "I Will Follow Christ", a trio by Clay Crosse, BeBe Winans, and Bob Carlisle. There are two additional bonus tracks on the silver disk as well: "I Am" by Jill Phillips, and "Friend of Mine" by Jonathan and Stephen Cohen, two brothers who witnessed the Columbine High School shooting and wrote a song about the experience to comfort and encourage others in Jesus.
If you were one of the lucky few to purchase WoW 2000 early, it's most likely your copy of the album contains an additional third CD. This WoW 2000 "New Artist Sampler" contains six songs by Waterdeep, Bebo Norman, Ginny Owens, Chasing Furies, Nichole Nordeman, and Natalie Grant; names you are likely to hear more regularly in the coming millennium. Do the math: that's 15 songs on each CD, plus a total of four bonus tracks, and six more songs on the "New Artist Sampler". It adds up to 40 songs in all, ten more than the CD cover advertises. There's obviously a growing trend here and maybe even a way for the producers to sneak more than the standard 30 songs on WoW each year.
If there is one, and only one, complaint with W2K, it's song choice. Not necessarily concerning the artists, but their songs picked to go on the album. Songs like "Basic Instructions", "Speechless", and "Consume Me" are already a few months old by now and have been heard repeatedly on Christian radio. New material like Jennifer Knapp's "A Little More" is what pleases most because it's previously unreleased and unheard. Still, audiences will most likely applaud the selection of favorites on the compilation and will no doubt dish out the money to pay for them. True, this compilation is a 2-CD set and a bit more pricey than other albums on the market, but with the extra third CD and ten additional songs, it's a great buy and is sold for less than it's worth. WoW 2000 is a milestone album that marks the journey of Christian music through a year of blessing and growth, and at the same time it ushers the music and its listeners into the new millennium while setting a high standard for the future.
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