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Music Review: Life Is Not A Snapshot | Posted October 15, 2009
By C.E Moore
GENRE: CCM
LABEL: SPARROW RECORDS
RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 8, 2009
RATING: 1 OUT OF 5
Josh Wilson is back with 7 new radio-friendly tunes that is sure to blaze a trail across the saccharine saturated AC charts. His previous effort Trying To Fit The Ocean In A Cup didn’t exactly strike a chord with me. This project is a step down. However, if you like easy-to-swallow, part worship, part pop music, then you’ll find something to love in his second album, Life Is Not A Snapshot.
“Sing” begins the album and it’s pretty straight-forward and straight-laced. Actually, it’s so straight-forward and straight-laced it’s almost offensive. Nothing against the message of “God’s continuing presence and hope,” but if delivery is part of the package, then Josh Wilson’s public is going to be hovering somewhere around 40. (That is a sweeping generalization, of course. They could easily be much older than that.)
“Before The Morning” is the obligatory “God-is-there-even-when-life-is-dark-so-dare-to-believe-it” songs that seem to characterize CCM albums. You know how you’re going through hell and then you hear that song that captures how you feel or gives you hope in the midst of it? This isn’t that song. This is the trite, clichéd version of that song.
Remember Greg Long? He’s part of Avalon now. Before that, he was a solo artist. Decent at times. Not so decent at others. Anyhow, he had a particular sound. “Listen” captures that sound well. Wanna venture a guess as to what the song is all about? That’s right! Listening to the voice of God!
“Do You Want To Know” is a song that would make a great concept video and, subsequently, the only track on the album I liked. Wilson weaves a story about walking past a homeless/downtrodden person, imagining that person’s similarities to the passer-by.
The instrumental “Amazing Grace” ends the album. It’s decent, but the really amazing thing about it is that it ends such a terrible project.
Unfortunately, Life Is Not A Snapshot never rises to the level that so many reviewers seem to think it has. Josh Wilson certainly has a lot of potential, but he’s not saying anything that hasn’t been said before and he certainly hasn’t delivered a form of music that wasn’t conveyed by Michael W. Smith, Greg Long, PFR, and Steven Curtis Chapman in the late 90’s.
This review has been reprinted on NRT with permission from The Christian Manifesto. Click here to visit TheChristianManifesto.com today!
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