Oh, how I wanted to like this album! It's just such a cool idea for someone to produce an album of dance remixes of some of the worship favourites at their own church. Sadly, I'm not convinced that Simon Levell has quite pulled it off. Simon is a member of Holy Trinity Brompton and, although it's not an official HTB album, it features HTB favourites, HTB musicians and even samples a couple of previous HTB recordings. Featured are versions of Ishmael's "Blessed Is The King", complete with samples of children's worship, and Andy Piercy's "Let Us Give Thanks". Mostly, it's mellow, even middle-of-the-road, dance grooves with some pleasant female vocalising, but there's nothing that really grabs you and too many of the actual rhythm tracks sound stodgy. The best tracks are "Miserere II" by Simon himself which achieves a certain ambience and the closing "Father Of Lights" which works up a fair head of steam. I hope it sells by the hundreds in HTB and its network of churches, but it's hard to recommend it too far beyond that.
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.
Interested in reviewing music? Find out
more here.