Search - Degarmo & Key :: Destined to Win: The Classic Rock Collection

D & K's greatest 80's & 90's hits.

rnorton828 | Riverbend, IL | 08/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"DeGarmo & Key were one of the first bands that got me into Christian rock music during the mid 1980's. I saw them live about 5 or 6 times, including 3 times at Greenville College's Agape music festival in Greenville, Illinois. "Destined to Win: The Classic Rock Collection" features many of D & K's hits from the Benson/Forefront era of the 80's-early 90's. Two new songs ("Color Me Gone" & "I'll Come Out Fighting for You") are added, as is a new digitally remixed version of "Six, Six, Six." Some other great tracks include "Every Moment," "Casual Christian," "Destined to Win" (with special guest Jessy Dixon), "Let the Whole World Sing," "Ready or Not" and the 1986 version of "Addey" (a song which the band had originally recorded in 1978 on "This Time Thru"). In addition to this CD, I also recommend the DeGarmo & Key collection from Sparrow's "History Makers" series. It contains many of the same songs which are featured on "Destined to Win," plus 5 or 6 songs from the band's early years during the 1970's (including the original version of "Addey")."

What kind of a name is Degarmo, anyway?

Caleb | Sleepytown, USA | 05/20/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Degarmo and Key were mostly on the way out by the time I got into Rock music, in the mid 90s. Just before that, I had a subscription to a Christian Teen Magazine, entitled Breakaway, which is coincedentally enough, still around. The only thing I remember about the magazine are the letters people would write in with questions about various "spiritual" issues, such as whether they should listen to secular music. I can still remember the editors dismissing such luminaries as Guns N Roses, Nirvana, and others for their questionable lyrical content, overlooking the style, the attitude, and the very spirit. Mostly they tripped over ... uh, vulgar language, and thoughts of despair, or negativity.

Instead they suggested Christian Rock bands like D&K, MW Smith, and Petra. While it may be true that their lyrics are easy to interpret as uplifting, it's really the same flight we've seen before.

The music is not bad, by any stretch, but it's not really excellent, either. The new track "color me gone" is actually quite entertaining, and shows a more light-hearted approach to salvation than seen elsewhere. The standard sneer at Occultism is also present, in 666. I guess I'll give it another listen, and try to edit this with more details. Quite why, I dunno. It's not like this review is even going to be read, seeing as how this release was... 15 years ago.

Stylistically, it's easy to set this in the late 80s, when synths were standard fare.

Skill wise, I think these guys are both rather talented, there's a few places here and there that stand out. You gotta give them some amount of props for being just two guys, anyway.

So basically, if you've got a mad-on for Christian Themed 80s Rock Music, you might wanna give this a listen. If you don't wanna hear about messages about Jesus for 60 minutes or so, you should probably avoid this."