MercyMe [10]

[MAIN REVIEW] It has been 10 years since MercyMe frontman Bart Millard penned “I Can Only Imagine,” a touchingly personal song based on his father’s early death. It has sold more than 2 million units, crossed over into multiple radio formats, and been adopted as an anthem by hurting people around the world. To celebrate the epic anniversary of one of the most popular and powerful songs in Christian music history, MercyMe is releasing “10”, a must-have new CD/DVD set. The CD features 12 of MercyMe’s best-loved songs spanning their five studio releases as well as three bonus tracks—including a new recording of “I Can Only Imagine” with the London Symphony Orchestra, the never-released track “Only Temporary,” plus the kids’ tune “10 Simple Rules.” The DVD contains both live and concept videos of all their best songs. The best opinion I can share about this collection comes from my nine year old daughter Natalie as we were watching the DVD together she asked me with intense interest: “they (MercyMe) really wrote and sang all of these songs?” She had heard all twelve ‘greatest hits’, including eleven #1 hit songs before and was surprised that so many hit songs were recorded by the same band. As a fan of this band for the past decade I gladly shared with her that yes MercyMe did in fact write and record all of these songs, making them one of the premier Christian artists. What’s amazing to me as a fan of MercyMe is how many songs I love that aren’t on the collection including “Here Am I”, “Love Of God”, “Keep Singing”, “You’re To Blame” and “Sanctified”. This is a truly great collection of songs. I like the mix as well, blending hit songs from “All That Is Within Me” (2007), “Coming Up To Breathe” (2006), “Undone” (2004), “Spoken For” (2003) and “Almost There” (2001). Rather than as a chronology, the songs are mixed almost by theme with songs about self-reflection, praise and worship and then personal prayer-songs. I also liked the 3 additional songs, however I prefer the original or acoustic versions of “I Can Only Imagine” over the London Symphony version. The other 2 songs are nice rarities and the children’s song “10 Simple Rules” is a neat and catchy song about the 10 Commandments. The DVD is also great for collectors. In the same order as the CD, the songs are shown either as live performances or the music video accordingly. The concept video for “Here Am I” is a great depiction of my life verse Isaiah 6:8 and the story behind “I Can Only Imagine” is touching and personal, which is one of the reasons the song has had so much impact on people. CLOSING THOUGHTS If you want all the best songs by MercyMe, then this collection is for you. Even if you already have the songs, get the collection just for the extra songs and the great DVD. Rating: 9.3 out of 10 (93%, A) Review written by: Kevin Davis | Review can also be found here. This review has been reprinted on NRT with permission from ChristianMusicReview.org. Click here to visit ChristianMusicReview.org today!