Reviewed by Brendan O'Regan

This is one of the best worship compilation albums I've heard this year. There are so many similar albums and they can get very generic, particularly when, like this one, most of the recordings aren't the originals but cover versions. But down the years Elevation Records (who used to be called ICC) have got very good at a) making studio versions of popular worship songs to a high quality, and b) being very selective in what songs they record - either originals or covers - so that there are very few mediocre deadweights in the '#Worship' series. Right from the start I was hooked by David Lyons' "I Will Hope" with its country rock vibe. The mood is more reflective on "Calvary (Covers It All)", while "We Believe" is a strong musical creed, but in case we get carried away with the singing the song cautions: "Let our faith be more than anthems". There's a definite Mumford flavour on the lively "Alleluia He Has Loved Us", with its deft acoustic guitar playing, while it's the piano that drives "Christ Be All Around Me", a variation on the prayer of St Patrick's Breastplate. One of the standout tracks is the intimate "Talk To Jesus" written by Pete James. So hats off to executive producer Peter Martin or project coordinator Denise Anstead or record label manager Sue Rinaldi or whoever was responsible for song selection. But yet again we must comment that the Christian labels' insistence on re-releasing material without identifying the source releases/lead singers is a poor practice which doesn't show them in a very good light.

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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