Reviewed by Paul S Ganney

The Jesus Army is the identity of the Jesus Fellowship Church uses in its outreach and street-based work throughout Britain. A few years back the Army was pouring out cassette releases of live worship which were rather low in musical content but high in enthusiasm. This CD emanates from a live event to celebrate God's faithfulness to the Jesus Army featuring songs spanning their 40-year history. Whether this is a recording of that event isn't completely clear - some of the recording is rough enough, but there's barely a hint of an audience. The tracks are in chronological order, which is a good choice as it shows the progression both musically and thematically that has been followed, from the folky amazement of "God Loves Even Us" through the importance of community, to the lessons learned in God's service and joy at his faithfulness ending in solid contemporary worship. The chronological approach also means that some lyrics that now seem distinctly clichéd are forgivable once seen in their timeframe. Compared to modern worship albums around today this is very raw (although the last two tracks seem better) and as far as the songs go, these are unlikely to be known outside the Jesus Army. It's mainly guitar, piano ("Come And See" has some nice figures), drums (plus banjo I think) and voices (some of the backing vocals deserve a special mention as they're so nicely done, eg, "This Is My Home") and they work through '70s folk ("Many Waters"), hymnody ("My Heart Is Held And Planted" - which also features some nice underpinning guitar work), country rock ("A New Revolution") and contemporary worship ("A Song Of Worship"). All in all, an album of vary varied quality but not without a few good moments.

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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