CD Me

User Reviews about x 2009 (CD DVD)

Pardon my corny review title, the CD...well, there's nothing corny about it. I have personally fallen off the Christian rock bandwagon since the late 90's, and I have to say, listening to this album, I've jumped back on.

I like traditional Gospel African American gospel and sometimes the Praise and Worship genre. But after trying to satisfy my secular rock fix with bands such as Muse, the Clash, Nirvana, Coldplay, and others I can't even recall, I wanted to find music that was on a different level, a deeper spiritual level and of course, glorifying G-d above all else.

I was pleasantly surprised by this album. I will never be a fan of screamo (provided by Underoath), Chrisitian or secular, so I have to skip over those tracks. But the stand out ones on the album are definitely:
1. 'We Need Each Other' (Sanctus Real)talks about friendship, family and relationships that we all need in life at some point.
2.'Southern Weather' (the Almost, I liked this song IMMEDIATELY)
3. 'The Difference' (Philmont)...the song is talking about seeing a difference in our lives as followers of Christ. Great harmonies, great words.
4. 'The Flame in All of Us' (Thousand Foot Krutch) Awesome melodies, reminds me of a Kurt Cobain-esque rock ballad.

In addition, the DVD is a nice bonus. My favorite videos were 'Southern Weather' by the Almost, and a track that didn't make the audio cd, 'Back to the Five' by Ruth. Amazing, beautiful song.

If you are looking for hard rock with a real message and some meaning, this would be a great album for you.
-- Rock for the Rock

I've been collecting "X" Series albums since they started in 2003 as a way to keep up with emerging Christian rock artists primarily from Tooth & Nail Records like Thousand Foot Krutch, The Almost, Underoath and Emery. Originally as a major collector of Christian music, the WOW Series rounded out my collection and introduced me to new Christian artists, however around 2006 I stopped collecting WOW albums as I already had every song and the albums seemed out of date. Meanwhile, the "X" Series has only gotten better over the last 6 years, with X 2009 being the crowning achievement in my opinion.

Over the past few years, I've come to really appreciate the hard rock artists on "X" collections and I was excited to see brand new songs "Surrender" by Seventh Day Slumber, and "The Unavoidable Battle Of Feeling On The Outside" by FM Static, which are two of the standout songs on the collection. If you like those songs, then you'll love the entire albums by both artists. Some other highlights for me are "Outrage" by Capital Lights, "Live Free Or Let Me Die" by Skillet, a new song from "Comatose Comes Alive", and "Sure Shot" by Run Kid Run.

What really makes X 2009 rank the highest overall is the DVD including 18 full-length music videos including songs not on the CD collection such as "Speaking Louder Than Before" by Jeremy Camp, "Whatever You're Doing" by Sanctus Real and "The Rescue" by Seabird. This is truly the best collection of new Christian music and videos of 2009. -- X 2009 [Various Artists]

Great songs like "To Know that Your Alive" by Kutless and "Outrage" by Capital Lights are enough to make the album worth buying, but there's also "Friend Like That" by Hawk Nelson, "Awakening" by Switchfoot, and "Ignition" by TobyMac (a guitar riff of which was played in Super Bowl 2009 as the Arizona Cardinal's entrance music).

If for nothing else, this album earns an extra star for including a bonus DVD comprising eighteen music videos, a first for the standard X albums. With this come a couple of shortcomings though. (1) The highlighting of a selection (as of song) could be done better; I could see it just fine on my PC but for some DVD players--mine for instance--the coloring difference is pretty subtle. (2) Not all music videos show up in a widescreen format.

If those two drawbacks can be overlooked however, it's a fine collection for a bonus disc. Some of these music videos, such as "Outrage" and "Radiator" are also in the audio CD, but there are a good number of new songs here also. Notables in that department include "Lose My Soul," by Tobymac featuring Kirk Franklin and Mandisa, "Comatose" by Skillet (performed live), and "Carry Me Down" by Demon Hunter.
-- One of the best X albums to date