Album NotesIllustrators: Scott Hughes; Rob Marrero.Presented by the Gospel Music Association, The Best in Christian Music is a compilation album containing the ten Song of the Year nominees from the 27th Annual Dove Awards, tracks actually originally released between 1993 and 1995. Superstar Michael W. Smith leads things off with "Cry for Love," and the album also contains selections by such major acts as Point of Grace (whose "Jesus Will Still Be There" and "The Great Divide" are typical big ballads reminiscent of older Christian music such as, say, the Amy Grant of the early "80s), DC Talk (the grunge-rock title track from their album Jesus Freak --imagine Kurt Cobain as an angel!), Newsboys (with the rap/hip-hop "Shine"), and 4Him. This may or may not be the best in Christian music over the last few years, but it is representative of the diversity -- or perhaps just confusion -- of a genre always defined more by its message than its music. Maybe it shouldn"t be surprising that the most outstanding track is the most overtly Christian, Aaron Jeoffrey"s anthemic review of the different characteristics of God as revealed in different books of the Bible, "He Is." "The perfect way to start or complete your Christian music collection," reads a blurb on the back of the album, but "the perfect way to get a sense of what"s happening in Christian music in the "90s, for better or worse" is a better way of putting it.