Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Acquiesce are a band emerging from the youth ministry of Fulwood Free Methodist Church in Preston. The approach is to take a pile of popular current pop worship tunes and record them live. This CD sounds like it was recorded straight onto DAT from the mixing desk, and consequently no post production mixing is possible. The result is a muggy sound, with instruments unbalanced, and the sound does the band no favours. Clearly the musicians can play - especially the lead guitarist who enjoys soloing throughout. Unfortunately, the band's singer isn't too hot and sometimes he strays from the tune, and this weakness is more than evident in the live setting. The other weakness is that this material is so familiar - Matt Redman, Delirious? numbers etc - that no matter how well they are played Acquiesce are going to sound inferior to the originals. Here's a band that really need to write their own material, and spend a little time thinking how they can better commit it to tape, to highlight their strengths and not their weaknesses. As for this CD? No encore, please! Move on and rethink.

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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