Reviewed by Michael Durrant

Musically slick, vocally smooth and with an unmissable groove throughout, this is a sound that is both impressive and just plain good fun. Muyiwa Olarewaju has been blessed with a spectacular deep voice, comparable to Barry White's and on this recording his ad-libbing waivers along a scale from intensely annoying to strangely soothing. The album seeks to bring together musical styles from right across the globe and the first few excellent tracks get close to the genius of Paul Simon's 'Graceland' foray into world music. The central African beats and rhythms in "Only You Be God" and the poignant chorus to "Holy Holy Holy" sung in Mandarin are high points in the opening section. However the middle part of the CD descends into fairly bland, middle of the road gospel music that, while lyrically laudable, fails to inspire. This is rescued with the penultimate track "My Heritage" which is a short but spine tingling African choral song based on Psalm 23 that Muyiwa describes as a song from his childhood. This is high quality gospel music that would certainly appeal to devotees of that genre. An ambitious set from a worship leader determined to push the cultural boundaries of worship music.

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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