Reviewed by Brian Carr

Andrew Yelland, along with being worship leader at Keynsham Elim Pentecostal Church, is also director of Worship Resource Ministries.  Both he and his band travel around the region leading worship and conducting seminars on the development of praise and worship.  There are no prizes for guessing what is the major thrust behind the album 'In The Splendour', kicking off in a strong upbeat style, the first track, "The God Most High" slowly builds with a progression of instruments and vocals, and being partial to the saxophone I appreciated the touches of sax.  "I Feel A Joy" continues the tempo with the addition of Hammond organ and the sax again providing silky smooth links between verse and chorus.  The electric guitar comes to the fore on "We Are Your People, Lord" and some may feel it a little too dominant.  A laidback mellow intro heralds "When I Enter", a plea to the Lord for refreshing and renewal followed by "Song Of Repentance" with its heartfelt cry for forgiveness sung against a backdrop of sensitive instrumentation that did not fail to stir this listener's heart.  As its title suggests, "I Eat This Bread" is a song ideally suited to the communion service having a gentle piano accompaniment and flute interweaving to create a devotional song reminding of the Lord's sacrifice.  The only song on the album not penned by Andrew is the Graham Kendrick song "Thorn In The Straw", a delicate, well crafted song in the Michael Card mould.  "You Are" and "Your Blood Is Sufficient" are two songs that I am sure work well in a live worship situation encouraging a "let your hair down", all out praise; thrashing guitars and again excellent sax solos.  Two instrumentals close the album providing the opportunity to chill out.  Whether any of these songs will enjoy widespread use is perhaps debatable and in the pursuit of excellence there is always room for improvement and such is the case on this album.  It could have benefited from some tweaking perhaps with the addition of more vocalists supporting Andrew and Sue Ison on some songs to give a fuller sound but this is, I feel, outweighed with much to enjoy on this offering from a group of talented musicians who manifested to this listener a genuine wholehearted desire to minister rather than obtaining any "star status" and in this they succeeded.

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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