Reviewed by Tony Cummings

I'm on track 18, "Father Abraham" and already I'm counting how many tracks I've got to go. Maybe it's unfair with a 4CD, 100 song compilation like this to try and wade through the collection at one sitting but somehow that seemed preferable to spreading the process out. Regular Cross Rhythms readers will know that our reviewers, me included, have a very low opinion of the Cedarmont Kids series. For years producers Mike and Sue Gay have amassed a fortune by taking anonymous children's choirs into studios. There they get them to song mainly public domain songs from Sunday school hymnals accompanied by cheap-sounding keyboard-based backing tracks. The original CDs used in this compilation offered 15 to 25 songs together with split track versions (for "singalong fun" of course). Now someone has pulled 100 of the songs from, (deep breath) 'Bible Songs', 'Action Bible Songs', Sunday School Songs', 'Songs Of Praise', 'Silly Songs', 'Lullabies', 'Hymns' and 'Toddler Tunes' and put them in a brightly coloured box for more parents to purchase. Given the concept it is hardly surprising that the shrill voices, banal unison choruses and twee accompaniments quickly pall, particularly when the songs are banal ditties from Victorian era Sunday schools. And it could be argued that songs like "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" or "Climb, Climb Up Sunshine Mountain' are hardly "Bible Songs" at all. And when the kids get to perform a truly beautiful old spiritual like "Lord I Want To Be A Christian" the dear kids musical limitations are only too evident. Now I know that there are those who'll argue that a project for very young kids cannot be objectively assessed by grizzled old music journos while others may point out that the huge sales (particularly in America) of the Cedarmont albums make Cross Rhythms critiques irrelevant. But we can only be true to our convictions. These are shoddy albums that I wouldn't want my children, or my grand children, listening to.

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