Bad Moon Rising: The 2014 Platinum Vinyl Awards 4th Qtr - Modern Worship

We have come to the final three. If you've been following things you can do the math and figure out who the big winners are. I already said we had a tie for first. Modern Worship is a big winner every quarter. It's one of the most overrun genres in Christian Music. What Hath Hillsong Wrought? I won't waste any more space. Here is the list.

Modern Worship

• Bluetree - Worship and Justice
• Lincoln Brewster - Oxygen: A Worship Album
• Cadence - Home
• Covenant Worship - Kingdom
• Desperation Band - Banner
• Steffany Gretzinger - The Undoing
• Hillsong Worship - No Other Name Deluxe
• Justin Jarvis - Atmospheres
• New Hope Oahu - Victorious
• Kathryn Scott - Sing on The Battlefield
• Rhyan Shirley - High Above
• Dustin Smith - Coming Alive
• Summit FutureNow - The Now and The Not Yet
• Jaye Thomas - Here is My Worship

I can be a bit nitpicky. I didn't like No Other Name by Hillsong, yet with the Deluxe edition I think they hit the right notes. I liked New Hope Oahu better this time around, yet I still wish there was a bit more Holy Ho (as in Don Ho). They're in Hawaii for goodness sake. A little local color would be nice from time to time. The final two are next: Alternative and Gospel. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

#PlatVnyl3 - Song of The Year

Song Of The Year. The name screams "Big". You may more properly name this the Anthem of The Year, as that is the type of song that lends itself to this award. Ballads need not apply, usually. Some things are expected of the winner. It must have a certain in your face attitude. It must be an earworm song, in a good way (Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen need never apply). It must have awesome Orchestration. Strings are always welcome. Soaring Vocals Too. In a phrase, the song must be bigger than life.

Six songs made the initial pool. Five genres were represented

• Blush , Pilgrims and Prodigals, Annie Moses Band
• Fire Walk With Me, Make it Right, Abel
• Lord of Patience, The Attributes of God, Shai Linne
• Lost in Paradise, Evanescence, Evanescence
• My Heart is Broken, Evanescence, Evanescence
• Our God is Coming, Center of it All, Desperation Band

The race to succeed "Manifesto" by The City Harmonic was on.

The first round of voting reduced six songs to four. My Heart is Broken had its heart broken by being deemed the weakest of the two Evanescence nominees. Joining the ranks of the broken hearted was Lord of Patience, the rap entry.

The second round of voting took the lush pop ballad Blush by Chamber Pop group Annie Moses Band and Middle Eastern Twinged Modern Worship Song Our God is Coming out. AMB pretty much had the ballad hopes wrapped up. The final round showdown was on. In this corner, Fire Walk With Me by Abel. In the other corner Lost in Paradise by Evanescence. The former is a classic sing along song, complete with chorus "Oh, the devil wants to drag my soul, drag my soul, down to the lake of fire." The latter is much more difficult to sing along with. It is hard to disagree, however, that the girl can make pain beautiful.

And when you have 12 nominations, the odds are in your favor that you are going to win some. No one expected 11 wins (2 nominations in Song of Year, only 1 Award). But the Big ones are the ones that count. The Platinum Vinyl Award for Song of The Year goes to Evanescence for Lost in Paradise. Just a few more posts to do. Do me a big favor. Click on the Links, Download the Song. Support The Night Beat. I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Music Video Monday: Wonderful

Welcome to Music Video Monday, where we show the top Music Videos in the CCM World. We are now in the midst of the third quarter releases, which just ended last month. It feels good to be caught up, so to speak.

This time around we have a surprise, Modern Worship Videos. We just don't get many of them. Both MW and Gospel usually don't do videos.

We begin with Desperation Band from New Zealand. Their new album Center of It All has a woman doing this cool Middle Eastern sounding yell. The Song is called Our God is Coming. Unfortunately I couldn't find a video for that, but this is Wonderful.

We move on to Bluetree. The band is part of our latest "invasion" in Christian Music. Like Rend Collective, they hail from Northern Ireland. This is Jesus Healer from Kingdom

I think we shall stay with the Mother Country and her former colonies. We began with New Zealand and moved over to Northern Ireland. We shall now take on the band most responsible for merging Rock Music with Worship. Sorry Australia, it's not Hillsong. It's Delirious? from Britain. This quarter The Cutting Edge Years was released. This is a Video of History Makers to honor it..

That is a fitting way to end this edition of Music Video Monday. I really miss Martin and Company. They really need to rethink retirement. Until Next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Sonic Awakening: 3rd Qtr Nominees - Modern Worship

Continuing with the announcement of the Spring Releases which crossed the initial bar to qualify for the pool of entries eligible for the Platinum Vinyl Awards. This of course only means they get to be judged, but if you don't make the pool, you can't win.

We move on to the Modern Worship genre. No one who is remotely knowledgeable about Christian Music should be surprised that this pool is an extremely large one. It seems these days that just about every Church has produced a worship album, and those that haven't yet are probably in the studio as I write. Most are good, and some are great. It is my job to weed out the great from the good.

Modern Worship

• Bluetree - Kingdom
• Delirious - The Cutting Edge Years
• Deluge - Swell
• Desperation Band - Center of it All
• Maranatha - Top 25 Praise Series Classics
• Christy Nockels - Into The Glorious
• Planetshakers - Heal Our Land
• Travis Ryan - Fearless
• Stuart Townend - The Ultimate Collection
• Phil Wickham - Singalong 2

All of these albums were above par, rising above the typical Hillsong Copy. The live album by Phil Wickham is also outstanding in the audience participation, though his voice did crack on the high notes a few to many times.

Three down, eleven to go. Stay with me as the results are revealed. Also stay with me tomorrow as we have a special Flashback Friday as I review the 30th Anniversary Re-Issue of More Power To Ya. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Night Beat Rewind: April 2012

We are really behind schedule here at Night Beat HQ. It comes with the territory when you are a one man band, so to speak. With the Platinum Vinyl Awards just about to commence, the start of Festival Season (a few started already), the regular release schedule, and everyday mayhem, I am about a month behind. To paraphrase Steve Taylor "I want to have a clone".

We are almost at Memorial Day Weekend (it's this weekend) and I haven't completed my April Rewind yet. Hopefully I will be able to catch up before Summer begins.

Missing The Mark

• Paul Baloche - The Same Love 3.75 Emeralds
• Smokie Norful - Once In A Lifetime 3.5 Emeralds

Perfect Platinum

• Demon Hunter - True Defiance 5 Emeralds
• Israel & New Breed - Decade 5 Emeralds

One caveat here, with Israel Houghton having a 10 year best of album, it really doesn't count as a true 5 Emerald release. If you don't have a WOW best of album, you did a horrible job picking songs to begin with.

Semi-Precious Metal

• Big Daddy Weave  - Love Come to Life 4.5 Emeralds
• Steven Curtis Chapman - #1's Volume 1 4.5 Emeralds
• Deluge - Swell 4.75 Emeralds
• Desperation Band - Center of It All 4.50 Emeralds
• Todd Dulaney - Pulling Me Through 4.5 Emeralds
• Fike - The Moment We've Been Waiting For 4.50 Emeralds
• Forever Jones - Musical Revival 4.75 Emeralds
• Haste The Day - Best of the Best 4.75 Emeralds
• KJ-52 - Dangerous 4.5 Emeralds
• Trip Lee - The Good Life 4.75 Emeralds
• Manafest - Fighter 4.75 Emeralds
• MxPx - Plans Within Plans 4.75 Emeralds
• Dan Macauley - From You For You 4.25 Emeralds
• Christy Nockels - Into The Glorious 4.75 Emeralds
• Newworldson - Rebel Transmission 4.75 Emeralds
• Moriah Peters - I Choose Jesus 4.50 Emeralds
• Planetshakers - Heal Our Land 4.50 Emeralds
• Rocky Loves Emily - Secrets Don't Make Friends 4.50 Emeralds
• Travis Ryan - Fearless 4.25 Emeralds
• Marvin Sapp - I Win 4.75 Emeralds
• Holly Spears - Heartache to Hope 4.50 Emeralds
• John Tesh - Big Band 4.75 Emeralds
• Thousand Foot Krutch - The End is Where We Begin 4.75 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Faith Hope and Lullabies: Sing Me To Sleep 4.50 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Jesus Music Anthology: The 70's 4.5 Emeralds
• Various Artists - X:2012 4.75 Emeralds
• The Vespers - The Fourth Wall 4.75 Emeralds
• War of Ages - Return to Life 4.50 Emeralds
• Willet - Love on the Outside 4.50 Emeralds
• Anita Wilson - Worship Soul 4.50 Emeralds

That finally concludes the April releases and my quick hit ratings. I have linked to the reviews I made of several of the releases. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.