Reviewed by Tom Lennie

Vineyard UK blasted onto the worship scene in the late '90s with two phenomenal live recordings, 'Come Now Is The Time' (1998) and 'Hungry' (1999), which spread round the world like wildfire and quickly became, and to this day remain, two of Vineyard International's best-selling discs. The main players of those recordings, who included Brian Doerksen, Kathryn Scott, Brenton Brown and Marc James, continued to collaborate on Vineyard UK's next project, the studio venture 'Surrender' (2000), which also enjoyed huge popularity and it is this album, together with the equally excellent 'Beautiful' (2002) and 'Hold On' (2003) which make up three fifths of this project. As Vineyard UK's popularity grew, two individual local church teams - the Burn Band from St Albans (featuring Samuel Lane and Marc James) and Nottingham's Trent (featuring Nigel Briggs) - both produced albums in their own right so as well as the three Vineyard UK albums mentioned, this package also offers the Burn Band's 'All From You' (2006) and Trent Vineyard's 'Hold On' (2003). All in all, it's a remarkable collection, revealing the striking ongoing creativity and originality which has marked Vineyard UK from the very start, keeping them at the cutting edge of contemporary praise and worship. It's a worthy showcase and a great collector's item - beautifully packaged and retaining the individuality of each original release.

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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