Reviewed by Tony Cummings

If you haven't caught up with Bright City yet - and clearly quite a few folk have, this independent album recently making number two on Britain's Official Christian & Gospel Albums Chart - Bright City is a collective of songwriters, musicians and producers from St Peter's, Brighton, one of whom happens to be one-time Delirious? man Martin Smith. And pretty wonderful it is too with the aggregation bringing a fresh and inventive approach to the modern worship template. Particularly impressive are the array of top rate singers/worship leaders that Bright City have in their midst for this debut with Martin himself seldom stepping up to the vocal mic. Instead we have vocalists Matt Bray on the surging "Forever Yours", Sarah Bird on the slow and haunting "I Will Rest" and Lizzy Holt on the anthemic mid-tempo "Keep Me Close" all drawing in the listener. Production by Johnny Bird and Mr Smith is way above the standards of most worship projects and most important of all several of the 12 songs on offer here sound perfect for use in churches far away from Brighton. I particularly enjoyed the percussive track three penned by Lydia McAllister, Henry Milne, Martin Smith and Kevin Smartwood with its memorable hook ("Your love is a force field around me") catchy enough to get Radio One play if someone at St Peter's is ambitious enough to pitch it at the Beeb.

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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