Reviewed by Jennifer Brooker

WWW is a new quarterly resource for worship leaders drawing on material from several copyright holders. However, try introducing any of the 31 songs in these first two volumes to a church already using contemporary praise and worship, and I wonder if anyone will notice that they are new. Each individual song is perfectly well constructed in this particular genre, but they all have the feel of being in simple double or quadruple time; the tonal language is so limited half the songs are in the same two keys (easier for the musicians, but a little tedious after a while); and the lyrics are so safely orthodox, most are completely unmemorable. World wide music? I don't think so, unless we mean by that music from across the globe entrenching itself into one small corner of the field staked out by the academically-trained composers of Western Europe up to about 1900. That, in praise of a God of boundless creativity, would be a great pity; and I doubt if it will do much to raise the level of interest in this genre of music or attract people to the one to whom it is dedicated.

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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