The WOW collections to date offer something for everyone and seldom disappoint. However, WOW Hits 2005 may have set the bar higher in terms of variety of new acts and a bountiful harvest of creativity. If we are to take the producers of the WOW collections at their word, then these Purple and Silver discs offer the year's best. Several good listens later, you'll agree that there is a bright future ahead for contemporary Christian music. Sure we have the bigger name acts of Mercy Me ("Here With Me"), Newsboys ("You Are My King"), Jars of Clay ("Show You Love"), and maybe the year's best single from Steven Curtis Chapman "All Things New." But there's plenty of new blood as well with Matthew West ("More"), Kutless ("Sea of Faces"), Building 429 ("Glory Defined"), Bethany Dillon ("All I Need"), and bonus baby Day of Fire ("Cornerstone). Praise and worshippers will be pleased with the inclusion of David Crowder ("Open Skies") and the delightful Zschech ("Pray"). While WOW Hits 2005 gathers a lot of radio hits, there's no doubt that more critical voices may clamor about various omissions. Ask a roomful of Christian music fans to put the year's 30 best on a WOW release and you'll get a roomful of answers. But all can agree that WOW Hits 2005 proclaims that the year 2004 was a good one.