BBC Songs Of Praise - Songs Of Praise From Old Trafford
STYLE: Hymnody RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 16423-CAS2616 LABEL: Alliance ALD026 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Martyn Tott
Judging from the HUGE popularity of the Songs Of Praise from Old Trafford programme (Cheapskate BBC recently cobbled together a second one from outtakes of the first!) there is a large, passive, 'religious' audience for this album to appeal to. Recorded of course in Man United's stadium are renditions of a dozen worship songs old and new. My initial enthusiasm was dampened however by the producer's efforts to give the event a 'Last night of the proms' feel. I do not doubt for a minute that the actual event was spectacular (including war plane overhead as heard on the opening track) but trying to capture an event of this scale onto a soundtrack has been unsuccessful this time round. The clarity of the words are mostly lost in the recording. The songs themselves range from the older classics, "Amazing Grace", "When The Saints", etc to the more modern Kendrick "Rejoice, Rejoice". The saving tracks of the album in my opinion were Edwin Hawkins' "Oh Happy Day" and the last track, the old terrace favourite "You'll Never Walk Alone". Personally though, this one didn't quite "inspire, uplift and thrill" me like the sleeve notes promised. Sorry.
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