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Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

The name of Cedarmont has gone down in the annals of Cross Rhythms reviews as being the most vilified and derided of all the purveyors of music for kids. Words such as cheap, nasty, boring and excruciating have been used consistently by a plethora of reviewers, some of whom have gone so far as to assert that buying one's kiddywinkers an album by Cedarmont would lay one open to charges of child cruelty. So what are we to make of this latest item from the production line that (according to the sleeve) has shifted in excess of 17 million units? The first thing to note is that the material on this album is quality stuff - David Ruis, Pete Furler, Brian Doerksen, Rich Mullins, Amy Grant, Michael W Smith and Chris Tomlin are some of the names on the track list - and the days of 'Sooty at the organ' arrangements are likewise long gone; someone's obviously concluded that spending a few dollars more would be a good idea. What hasn't changed, however, is the unison singing, although to be fair, the kids are much more consistently in tune these days than heretofore, and there's some reasonable two-part harmony on "Come Now Is The Time To Worship". Another down side is that all of these songs are available in much better versions elsewhere. Light years ahead of the stuff that's been available in the past, but someone at Cedarmont ought to try to get some new kids' material for the next album.

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