Response

Personnel: Phil Wickham (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Peter Kipley (guitar, programming); Taylor Johnson (electric guitar); Joe Williams (programming).
Recording information: Big Fish Audio; Darkhorse Recording; Germantown Recording Company; The Imellion; Townsend Sound.
Photographer: Christian Rios.
Alternative CCM rocker Phil Wickham's fifth studio-album 2011's Response is a melodic and epic blast of modern rock uplift that showcases Wickham's yearning vocals. Clearly indebted to the sparkling, guitar-centric rock of U2, Wickham has a knack for crafting powerful and anthemic rock tracks that are as hummable as they are emotionally weighty. To these ends, such songs as the superb lead-off number "Heaven Fall Down," and the similarly moving "This Is the Day" mix crooning vocals and chiming harmonic passages that bring to mind a mix of the romantic Brit-pop of Keane with the slick pop/rock of Maroon 5. Elsewhere, we get the moody, electro-tinged number "Joy," the wide-eyed "At Your Name (Yaweh Yaweh)" and U2-meets-the Killers rocker "This Love Will Last Forever." Longtime fans of Wickham's previous work as well as anyone inclined toward spiritual-leaning, adult alternative rock will find much to enjoy on Response. ~ Matt Collar