Chris Rice

Item: Snapshots: Live and Fan Favorites
Author: Brian A. Smith

Snapshots: Live and Fan Favorites

(2005)

Reviewed by Brian A. Smith

Discogs Apple Music

Label Rocketown RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2005

adult contemporary ccm

Snapshots serves as Rocketown's answer to fans and reviewers that indicated Chris Rice's greatest hits package, Short Term Memories, was incomplete. Five live tracks are included, as well as songs Rice did as one offs for other projects (Exodus, Calling Out Your Name, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie).

Between this disc and Short Term Memories, fans now have thirty-two tracks of Rice at their immediate disposal. Concert standard "Cartoons" is included, as well as two tracks from The Living Room Sessions, Rice's all instrumental project that was mysteriously neglected on the first package.

Relatively new songs such as "Naïve," "Everything's OK," and "Me and Becky" fit in side by side with older standards such as "Deep Enough to Dream," "Big Enough," and "Sometimes Love."

Personally, my favorites are from Rice's most adventurous album, Smell the Color 9. Rice is known as a radio friendly singer who knows his range and generally stays within it. In concert, he is engaging, often humorous, and louder than one would expect from hearing his music over the airwaves. This comes across in the live tracks, and especially on songs like "Billy Joe McGuffrey", done for the Jonah soundtrack. Normally, this tune would be perceived as a throwaway, but Rice's trademark humor makes it work.

Some see Rice as a bland performer, designed only for CCM, a Steven Curtis Chapman wannabe. I would challenge those with that opinion to listen to his songs. With his talent on guitar and piano, and James Taylor-like vocals, Rice is one of the best in music that is generally seen as middle of the road adult contemporary. He deserves a better fate than that -- his music has more depth than what is normally ascribed to CCM.

4 tocks