Reviewed by Tony Cummings

I seem to remember that some company once released an album consisting of nothing but different renditions of "Louie, Louie" (Richard Berry's doo-wop classic which the Kingsmen turned into a garage rock classic). This album doesn't quite go that far, although this 13 song compilation, released to tie in with the feature film inspired by MercyMe's "I Can Only Imagine" mega hit of 2001, rather over eggs the pudding for, in addition to the 2001 hit, it also features a new recording, dubbed "The Movie Session", which, despite its symphonic sweep, isn't as good, though maybe it works better in the film. The rest of the album features MercyMe's biggest Christian radio hits, including "Word Of God Speak", "Bring The Rain" and "God With Us". Undoubtedly Bart Millard has one of the best voices in CCM and "Imagine" deserves all its classic status being both haunting and moving. Whether Millard's musings on what awaits us in Heaven is sufficient to sustain a feature film remains to be seen. But as a Greatest Hits collection of well sung, well produced pop rock, I have no doubt that this will get plenty of car airplay.

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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