Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

An independent release masterminded by Derek Beavis. a worship leader in Edinburgh and featuring 11 of his songs. Hitting a style which draws on mainly acoustic styles, this is in the same musical ballpark as the recent recordings from Dave Clifton and Andy Piercy. Many of the songs here have a psalmlike quality lyrically and some just rock out! "Dance, Dance. Dance", "If God Is For Us" and "I Will Love Only You" tumble along in fine fashion. But there are a couple of moments when this album seems to hit a new level and step out of the "pretty good actually" into the "brilliant". On "Come Before The Precious Lamb" everything builds on top of a fluid rhythm line and power chords before guest singer Neil Alton lets loose with a surging song of adoration. Just great! It's Alton again who sings my favourite song here - "You Lead Me Through The Darkest Valley" demonstrates Derek Beavis's songwriting at its most emotional creating a psalm of security that in the toughest times. God leads us through. Alton memorably sings. "I may get knocked down but I'm not knocked out" and I rejoice that Beavis has more depth in his writing than the average happy clappy worship writer. Plenty here worthy of investigation and the guys have managed a clean production sound too.

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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