The only exception to that formula is the first track: Steven Curtis Chapman's "Dive" vs. Audio Adrenaline's "Get Down" vs. Grits "They All Fall Down." Instead of just lyrics-only from one artist and music-only from another, it has three different songs, and all three artists are heard more than once throughout a great mix. Whatever they did to Chapman's voice on "Dive" verses to make him line up with Audio A music makes him sound really ugly, but other than that, this mix is awesome (Grits rapping sounds much better with this background music than with the piano and Spanish guitar used on the original).

    The remaining nine tracks follow that simple formula, which is somewhat a disappointment after the hard work spent on the first track. But the variety of artists, songs, and musical styles keeps it from getting old or boring.

    The second track is Newsboys singing "Entertaining Angels" to the tune of dc Talk's "Colored People." Like I said before, there's not much creative work done, but just the fact that these two songs are put together sounds cool. Grits rapping "TN Boys" on track 3 fits OK with Switchfoot's music to "You Already Take Me There," but I still find myself longing to hear Jon Foreman singing a line. Rebecca St. James sings her older hit "God" to Earthsuit's "One Time," which generally sounds impressive (the intro is awesome). The only problem with John Reuben rapping "Do Not" to Benjamin Gate's "All Over Me" is that we've already heard rapping to alternative music in track 3, but it still sounds cool for the most part.

    The first verse of tobyMac singing "Yours" to Relient K's "Pressing On" is terrible, and the two aren't even lined up (although my cousin declared, "That's the point!") But on the second verse, it's lined up right and sounds pretty neat. The worst example of song selection is dc Talk's "Jesus Freak" vs. ZOEgirl's "Dismissed." It doesn't work to dismiss a boyfriend to the tune of Jesus Freak, ruining one of the best hit songs of all time. My favorite track is PAX217 "Tonight" music with Newsboys "Shine." The old Newsboys hit sounds awesome with PAX217's rockier guitars, which fit perfectly.

    The last two tracks flunk. Steven Curtis Chapman sings "Live Out Loud" to Out of Eden's "River," but the original of either song is better. Then, Carman "raps" on his famous "Who's In the House," set to ZOEgirl's "Even If," which gives Carman's song a pop feel instead of a bass-heavy hip-hop.

    Throughout the whole CD, it's basically a mix of "That sounds terrible," or "That sounds really cool." This CD is best made for the intense Christian music fan, as you'll more easily enjoy the mixes if you already know the songs.

    I'm sure there will be more Smash-ups to come. The future CDs will be compared to this one, and some will be better than others. But for now, there's only one, and it's worth getting just for the novelty of it. It could have been better, but for a first time thing, they did a good job.

Music Variety: 10 of 10
Mixing Quality: 8 of 10
Song Selection: 8 of 10
Worth Buying: 9 of 10
Overall Rating: B+ (88%)

CCM Magazine (August 2003)
Reviewer:Jessica Folkins
The Bad News: Using the music from "Jesus Freak" to back up ZOEgirl's "Dismissed" just leaves a longing to hear the dc talk originial.
The Good News: Both Newsboys songs are enhanced...the first track fares the best when it mixes the three hits...and is the most impressive overall.

ChristianityToday.com
The Bad News:While it's commendable that Tedd T. found three songs that work together musically and thematically, it's a bit too densely constructed to listen to all of them at once, and GRITS's rap is over-utilized to the point of annoyance...the mix of Carman's embarrassingly out-of-date "Who's in the House?" rap (which is only magnified next to the quality hip-hop artists on the album) with the driving dance beats of ZOEgirl's "Even If." The track is mercifully the last on the disc, so most people can end the listening experience with track 9
The Good News: The most bizarre example also involves the Newsboys, taking their anthemic classic "Shine" and dramatically raising the pitch of it to fit the strong rock blasts of Pax217's "Tonight." The result is a complete transformation that's a lot of fun...Equally strange is Rebecca St. James's "God," pitched down and merged with the modern reggae rock of Earthsuit's "One Time." Oddly enough, the two songs work together, and the irony is that Earthsuit is one of Rebecca's favorite bands.

JesusFreakHideout.com
The Good News:Where a mix like this excels is in the following track where Newsboys' "Entertaining Angels" meets the musical backdrop of dc Talk's "Colored People." A fun mix, it's neat to hear these two classics together...My favorite on this project is the perfectly mixed Rebecca St. James' "God" vs. Earthsuit's "One Time". It's so close and so good, you'd think it was meant to sound like this from the beginning... John Reuben's "Do Not" meets the melodic sounds of Benjamin Gate's "All Over Me" beautifully in ways that would never have crossed the average music listener's mind.
The Bad News:Where a mix like this goes wrong is in the handling of Steven Curtis's vocals. They slow his voice down to meet "Get Down"'s tempo to the point where Steven sounds like he's losing his voice or your stereo has a glitch...Unfortunately, the completely awkward and abrasively mismatched Grits "TN Bwoys" vs. Switchfoot "Already Take Me There" just doesn't fit no matter how you slice it as they try to mix rap with a pop-punk rock rhythm...one of the oddest pair-ups as Carman's decade-old attempt to rap in "Who's In The House" awkwardly gets a redux to ZOEgirl's "Even If".
Rating: 3.5 of 5