Matthew West - Something to Say

Producer:  Brown Bannister, Ed Cash, Chris Stevens
Record Label:  Sparrow Records
Website:  http://www.matthewwest.com

I’ve always kind of seen Matthew West as “the little engine that could.” I don’t mean that in a bad way.  He’s just always kind of had the odds against him.  I don’t think anyone thought that Matthew could dominate Christian radio the way he has over the last couple of years.  His music was catchy, creative, and strongly written - all the ingredients for a great disaster at Christian radio - yet they still latched onto him.  After releasing two records with Universal South, West recently hopped over to Sparrow Records (who had been doing his distribution since day one).  He’s now releasing his fourth full-length national release (his independent project Sellout was released to retail after Happy hit store shelves) - Something to Say.  West basically picks up where he last left off with History.  All the elements that we have come to love from the budding singer/songwriter are still very present - catchy melodic hooks and great lyrics similar in sound to the likes of Steven Curtis Chapman, Mark Schultz, and Scott Krippayne with shades of tobyMac thrown in for good measure.  Most artists would get docked points just being a standard pop/rock artist in the Christian music landscape - but there’s just something about West’s music that sets him apart that is hard to put your finger one.  He’s almost too good at what he does.  All the right elements are here - the catchy radio tunes ("You Are Everything”, “Something to Say”, and “The Center") as well as the more serious moments ("All the Broken Pieces” and “Stop the World").  West just has that knack for creating the commercial - but in such a way that doesn’t offend those that are so opposed to mass-friendly music.  The only real draw-back here is that West kind of sticks to his guns lyrically.  There’s just not much here that hasn’t already been talked about - either or West’s own albums or albums by artists like tobyMac, MercyMe, Steven Curtis Chapman, and their kind.  However, that shouldn’t be any reason to avoid such a fine pop record as Something to Say.  There’s no reason to fear that West won’t be around for a while - as long as he keeps creating and writing music as catchy as the songs that are on this album - he’ll be around for a long time.

Purchase Something to Say.

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