Best Christian Albums of 2018

2018 was a year of transitions in CCM. For the first time I can remember, I've included FOUR EP's on my year end list and one double album! In fact, my #2 album of the year is Tenth Avenue North's The Things We've Been Afraid to Say which probably would have been #1 had it been a full-length record. But in the end, Rend Collective makes their first appearance on my year-end chart (and at #1!) with their phenomenal album Good News. There isn't a bas song in this bunch and I can imagine singing about half of these every Sunday morning for years to come... I just wish they had the same promoters as Chris Tomlin or Hillsong to get their music out there and onto worship set-lists and radio!



1. Rend Collective- Good News



2. Tenth Avenue North- The Things We've Been Afraid To Say EP




3. Lauren Daigle- Look Up Child



4. for King & Country- Burn the Ships



5. Blanca- Shattered



6. Francesca Battistelli- Own It

7. Audrey Assad- Evergreen



8. Andrew Peterson- Resurrection Letters [Prologue & Vol. 1] 




9. Caleb & Kelsey- Worship




10. Casting Crowns- Only Jesus



11. NEEDTOBREATHE- Forever On Your Side EP




12. Phil Wickham- Living Hope 



13. Unspoken- Just Give Me Jesus EP



14. Tori Kelley- Hiding Place EP



15. Crowder- I Know a Ghost 



16. Hillsong- There is More.



17. Hillsong Young & Free- III


18. Austin French- Wide Open


Disappointments: For the first time I've included three albums that were big disappointments for me- First is Chris Tomlin's highly anticipated Holy Roar. After the release of his teaching book of the same name, I expected songs  that correlated to the Hebrew words he discussed in the book. Instead we got the most generic batch of songs of Tomlin's career (outside of his excellent cover of Andrew Peterson's Is He Worthy?) It's a real missed opportunity here for the church and Chris Tomlin should have given us something better. Building 429 has given us better before and TobyMac's The Elements was just SO SLOW and normal. He usually brings more energy and that, to me, was a disappointment. 



- Chris Tomlin- Holy Roar


- Building 429- Live the Journey


- TobyMac- The Elements


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