I Wish We All Could Win is the debut album from the Christian rock

Christian rock

Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...

 band The Afters

The Afters

The Afters are a Christian rock band founded by Joshua Havens and Matt Fuqua. Havens and Fuqua first worked together in a Starbucks coffee shop in Mesquite, Texas, where they played for customers, before deciding to form a band. They added Brad Wigg and Marc Dodd, who were also employed at the same...

. The album contains their Dove Award-nominated hit single "Beautiful Love

Beautiful Love

Beautiful Love is the hit single from the debut album by Christian rock band The Afters, I Wish We All Could Win. The song was later used by MTV as the theme song to its reality show 8th and Ocean.- Critical success :...

". The album is notable for having two tracks on it used as theme songs. The aforementioned Beautiful Love was used for the MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 reality series "8th and Ocean" while the track "Until The World" was used as the theme song to the ABC Family

ABC Family

ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...

 drama Beautiful People. "You", "All That I Am", and "Someday" all charted on Billboard magazine's

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 Hot Christian Songs

Hot Christian Songs

Christian Songs is a Billboard chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States....

 chart.

Track listing

1. "Beautiful Love
   Beautiful Love
   Beautiful Love is the hit single from the debut album by Christian rock band The Afters, I Wish We All Could Win. The song was later used by MTV as the theme song to its reality show 8th and Ocean.- Critical success :...
   
   "– 3:58
2. "Until the World"– 4:18
3. "Someday"– 3:31
4. "Love Lead Me On"– 4:28
5. "All That I Am"– 4:24
6. "The Way You Are"– 3:43
7. "You"– 4:00
8. "Love Will Make You Beautiful"– 4:41
9. "Wait"– 3:13
10. "Thank God I'm Not the One"– 5:10

Personnel

• Joshua Havens - Vocals, Guitar
• Matt Fuqua - Vocals, Guitar
• Brad Wigg - Bass Guitar, Vocals
• Marc Dodd - Drums

Critical response

The website "Soul Purpose" remarked in their review: "The Afters display talent belying their short existence. ... engag[ing] the listener on a personal journey. A glimpse of the soul is rare indeed [but] the Afters debut effortlessly captures that." More often than not, critics have approved of the soulful pop rock The Afters deliver on this disc, regardless of its more overt religious themes.

• Jesus Freak Hideout
  Jesus Freak Hideout
  Jesus Freak Hideout is a Christian music website. The website specializes in reviewing, previewing, and selling Christian albums. The website is known for its album reviews, independent music, artist interviews, concert dates and ministry through devotionals and prayer...
  
  gave the album 4½ stars out of 5 commenting that "The Afters' approach to worship is a classy and thoughtful one."
• Christianity Today.com gave the album 3½ stars out of 5 and added that it effectively "manage[s] to straddle the fence between what Christian and mainstream radio is willing to play."
• Allmusic gave the album 3½ stars out of 5.

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions
		US Adult Top 40	US Digital Hot Digital Songs The Hot Digital Songs chart ranks the best-selling digital singles in the United States, according to Billboard.Beginning in February 2005, digital sales have been incorporated into many of Billboards music single charts. It was decided to do so mainly because of the dramatic rise in popularity of...	US Pop Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009...	US Hot 100	US Christ Hot Christian Songs Christian Songs is a Billboard chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States....
2005 2005 in music -Events:*During the year 2005, 12 rock music albums scored number 1 in the USA. This was the first time even ten albums have scored number 1 since 1996.-January:...	"Beautiful Love Beautiful Love Beautiful Love is the hit single from the debut album by Christian rock band The Afters, I Wish We All Could Win. The song was later used by MTV as the theme song to its reality show 8th and Ocean.- Critical success :... "	29	23	43	55	37
2005 2005 in music -Events:*During the year 2005, 12 rock music albums scored number 1 in the USA. This was the first time even ten albums have scored number 1 since 1996.-January:...	"You"	-	-	-	-	4
2006 2006 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.-January:*January 10 – Eric Burdon releases his album Soul of a Man and begins touring with a new band....	"All That I Am"	-	-	-	-	13
2006 2006 in music This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.-January:*January 10 – Eric Burdon releases his album Soul of a Man and begins touring with a new band....	"Someday"	-	-	-	-	25

Awards

• In 2005, CCM Magazine
  CCM Magazine
  CCM Magazine was a monthly magazine published by Salem Publishing, a division of Salem Communications. It was first published in July 1978, and it has always been a Christian music magazine. On January 16, 2008, Salem announced that the April 2008 issue would be the final printed issue of the...
  
   selected I Wish We All Could Win for the Editor’s Top 10 Albums.
• In 2006, the album was nominated for a Dove Award for Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year at the 37th GMA Dove Awards.
• The song "Beautiful Love
  Beautiful Love
  Beautiful Love is the hit single from the debut album by Christian rock band The Afters, I Wish We All Could Win. The song was later used by MTV as the theme song to its reality show 8th and Ocean.- Critical success :...
  
  " was also nominated for a Dove Award for Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year.

Album cover

The album cover features a turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

 and a rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

, possibly referencing Aesop

Aesop

Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...

's fable of "The Tortoise and the Hare

The Tortoise and the Hare

The Tortoise and the Hare is a fable attributed to Aesop and is number 226 in the Perry Index. The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through...

". The album title could be referring to the race that the two of them had in the story.