Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Somehow, I didn't expect to enjoy this. Maybe I've I just become a tad wearied 1 by Ron Kenoly's increasingly overblown albums. Maybe it was the slightly portentous sleeve blurb ("On a much anticipated evening on Long Island, New York, ' 3,000 people came together from all around the tri-state area to worship God..."). Or maybe it was that I simply hadn't recognised on Alvin's previous albums the size of his gift and the power of anointing. Whatever the reason, I'm now convinced that this is an exceptional worship album, up there with Kenoly's 'God Is Able' and Moen's 'Give Thanks'. Slaughter's voice is passionately soulful one moment, melodically restrained the next, the mass choir are in good voice but don't dominate the proceedings, the musicians (yep, Abe Laboriel's there!) are super tight and the songs, ranging from Laurie Klein's "I Love You Lord" Maranatha oldie to a fresh crop from Alvin, David Baroni, etc are excellent. The exceedingly generous playing time make all this exuberant worship a little exhausting to experience at one sitting but for those who enjoy the white praise music/black gospel synthesis, you'll find few better examples than this.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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