Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

This is sub-titled 'An inspirational blend of new and traditional songs', which, looking at the track list, is more or less accurate, although the only traditional songs I recognise are the two that are medleyised at the end of the CD, "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands" and "Praise Him In The Morning". The rest are a mix of hymns and praise songs from the '80s and '90s ("Shine Jesus Shine", "Be Still"), Sydney Carter's "Lord Of The Dance", "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar (hardly in my opinion a Christian song, but I quibble) and four of Madeleine's own compositions. Production values are on the whole reasonable, arrangements are mainly simple and uncluttered, with acoustic guitars, occasional synths and percussion, but at times there are vocal glitches that shouldn't be there. In "Followers", one of Madeleine's songs, the voices don't blend at all; on the chorus of "Shine Jesus Shine", whoever takes the melody struggles to hit the top notes and at times there are worrying inaccuracies in the lower registers as well. Overall there's little in the way of professional polish on this project that might convince a radio station to grant it airplay. There's far too much music out there as it is; self-inflicted deficiencies only make it harder.

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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