Category Archives: Video

BEST OF 2016- Part 1: Top 20 Music Videos

It’s that time of the year again…or thereabouts! Where we compile all of our best of lists, and announce our favourite songs, music videos, albums, and EP’s of the year, as well as TV shows and movies; not to mention looking forward to everything happening in the next year. But while there are still 4 and a half months to go, my first best of 2016 list (of my favourite 20 music videos!) is such that I reckon no other music video that would release throughout the rest of 2016 could enter into this list! So here are my favourite 20 music videos of the year thus far!

Continue reading BEST OF 2016- Part 1: Top 20 Music Videos

Message Mondays (Tenth Avenue North’s ‘What You Want’)

Tenth Avenue North have been one of my favourite Christian CCM bands of late. In fact, with songs like “Healing Begins”, “By Your Side”, “For Those Who Can’t Speak”, “Strong Enough to Save” and “Worn” to name a few, this quintet from Florida whose debut album on Provident Label Group was in 2008, have quickly become one of the most underrated and heartfelt bands over the last 5 years. Mike Donehey, lead singer, has always had something great to communicate across to us all through video devotionals about the band’s songs over the years. And while their most recent 2014 album Cathedrals only spawned 2 devotional videos (of their singles “No Man is an Island” and “Stars in the Night”), as opposed to the 5 from The Struggle (“Losing”, “Where Life Would Never Die”, “The Struggle”, “You Do All Things Well” and “Worn”), we are nevertheless blessed with what the band have to say for these two tracks. “No Man Is an Island” is a reminder to always live in community with one another, as we remember that we were never meant to live our lives outside of fellowship and relationship with our fellow man- we were meant for community just as God Himself is a community (of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). “Stars in the Night” is also a comfort, as we focus our eyes on Jesus and remind ourselves that in the darkest of nights, it is the stars, or rather, who created the stars, that will lead us on, from despair into hope, from uncertainty into moments of clarity, from indecisiveness to direction and focus. Now as the band ready for their new album Followers releasing October 14th, they have released a new radio single- “What You Want”.

Continue reading Message Mondays (Tenth Avenue North’s ‘What You Want’)

Top 10 ___: Top 10 CCM Bands Over the Last 10 Years

It was about 10 years ago when WOW Hits 2007 was releasing, that I branched out and listened to a wider range of Christian music. From artists like BarlowGirl, Rebecca St. James, Superchick and ZoeGirl, to Tree63, Stellar Kart, Sanctus Real and Hawk Nelson; my musical tastes have certainly evolved from the early days when I just listened to artists like Carman and Delirious?. While over the last 10 years, many bands that I’ve listened to are now disbanded, what had transpired within the 10 years was, and still is, a season of appreciation and enjoyment of music of various styles. So now here I am to start a new series. In light of the new WOW Hits 2017 album releasing in September, here’s my top 10 bands that I have thoroughly enjoyed throughout these last 10 years that I have listened to Christian music on a regular basis. Then next week I’ll discuss my favourite male CCM artists, and then the week after my favourite female CCM artists… and so on. So what are my favourite bands of the last 10 years? Read on to find out.

Continue reading Top 10 ___: Top 10 CCM Bands Over the Last 10 Years

THROWBACK TUESDAYS & WORSHIP WEDNESDAYS- FAVOURITE WORSHIP SONGS OF 2006

It’s always good to keep up to date in terms of worship music. Yet in keeping in with the trends of the most popular worship song of today (we all know right now it’s “Good, Good Father”), we can sometimes miss the beauty that it is in listening to good worship music of years gone by. So this post will honour and commemorate worship songs of the past, in particular 2006. It was in 2006 that I started to branch out and listen to a wide variety of Christian music. So what are my favourite worship songs of that year? Read on to find out.

Continue reading THROWBACK TUESDAYS & WORSHIP WEDNESDAYS- FAVOURITE WORSHIP SONGS OF 2006

Top 10 ___: Top 10 Anticipated Albums of July-December 2016

The year has gone quite fast, hasn’t it? It’s June already and soon enough, it’ll be the end of the year. And as the weeks roll on, there’s a constant we can count on- new music releasing each Friday. By the time the year ends, heaps of albums would’ve released. So as I look ahead from the period of July-December 2016, and glance at all the prospective albums that are scheduled to release, I have already written a list a mile long of albums I’m looking forward to. Nevertheless, this blog series is a top 10s series, so widdling the long list down to just 10 selections can be tricky, yet here below are 10 albums scheduled to release in the latter half of 2016 that I am excited about.

Continue reading Top 10 ___: Top 10 Anticipated Albums of July-December 2016

Sentimental Saturdays and Message Mondays (Control, and How The Story of Relinquishing Control is the Best One to Ever Tell and Be a Part Of)

Every time when you hit the hay, you think about control. How the next day is going to pan out, how you want it to go, how you want events to proceed. Call it what you want, I see it as trying to control the next day as much as possible, trying to make the day go ‘as according to your plan’ as much as possible. And I don’t think that it is that terrible, I mean, God did make us as wanting to make sure that we’re concerned about our future. Thinking about our future can be beneficial in some senses, as it puts our present life into perspective and makes us realise that our everyday worries shouldn’t be that strenuous. God set on our hearts worries about starting up a family, buying a house, paying a deposit for a car or a business, raising your kids, taking care of your spouse, and looking after your parents during retirement so that we know that present day worries such as whether we receive a distinction, a credit or a pass in a certain subject is immaterial and regardless of whether we are successful in the long run, or whether we are going to be successful at all. Think about it, do you think that the people who live in the largest houses in the richest suburbs are well and truly happy? We’d like to think so, that the more money we have or the more control we have, or the more power we have, or the more friends you have, or the more wealth and degrees you have, the happier and more successful you will become.

Continue reading Sentimental Saturdays and Message Mondays (Control, and How The Story of Relinquishing Control is the Best One to Ever Tell and Be a Part Of)

Message Mondays, Throwback Tuesdays – How Can I Lose My Follow Through, Between the Altar And The Door?

Losing our follow through between what we say before God at the altar, and when we walk out that door on after listening to the Sunday morning sermon, and into the real world of another working week, can seem very unlikely, yet at times, Christians do just that. Not that I’m calling anyone out on that (I know I can sometimes be guilty of this as well), but let’s just all be honest and frank about this topic- what does it mean for us to lose our follow-through, to promise something and for us to travel a 180° and act completely opposite to what people see us on Sundays? What does it look like, for us and for the people observing our behaviours, to know that our behaviour on our best days isn’t what we portray on an almost daily basis? What does it need to take for God to shake us and wake us, for Him to remind us that we don’t need to place on a brave face, that our follow-through and our word to Him is based on really, whether we believe that God is who He says He is, and whether we believe in His promises or not. Because to put things bluntly- for us to say one thing yet act out another is nothing short of us not really believing in God’s promises in the first place. Because if we’d truly believe what He calls us to be and become, the positive change we’d experience and people would see would be more 24/7 rather than 1 day a week.

Continue reading Message Mondays, Throwback Tuesdays – How Can I Lose My Follow Through, Between the Altar And The Door?

Message Mondays, Throwback Tuesdays, Worship Wednesdays (Living Life to the Full)

What does it look like to live each day with abandon? To not hold back in every aspect of our lives, regardless how mundane or trivial these tasks we undertake are? What does it really, truly mean for us to place aside every fear, burden, uncertainty and the like, and jump two feet into what we believe God has in store for us both now and into the future, in spite of our very real and present fears that what we undertake may not look like what we imagine or envisage, or worse still, what we hope God will accomplish in our lives as a result of our big decisions, isn’t what God has in store for us at all, but the exact opposite? Hard questions, I know but sometimes it is these questions that need to be said and discussed. To be asked and dialogued well by all involved, knowing full well that as we open up this forum to those close to us, we have to hope and know that what we say won’t be frowned on or judged. If we struggle with hopelessness, uncertainty, trying to determine the will of God in our lives, or even our plans v. His; regardless of what we lay bare on the table, surely we ought to know that those close to us won’t abandon us, no matter what skeletons rear their ugly heads?

Continue reading Message Mondays, Throwback Tuesdays, Worship Wednesdays (Living Life to the Full)