Maranatha! Music - Praise Classics: The Best of Our Praise Lord Of Lords
STYLE: MOR / Soft Pop RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 7604-7362 LABEL: Maranatha 7016285847 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1 RRP: £2.50
Reviewed by Simon Eady
More seriously confusing packaging. Despite phrases like 'Praise Classics' and 'The Best Of Our Praise and Worship' plastered on the sleeve, this series (there's also 'Lord Of Love', 'Lord Of Hosts', 'Lord Of Peace' and 'Instrumental') is NOT straight forward compilations of the old tracks from Maranatha's 15 volume series of 'Praise' albums of the 70s/'80s. Instead, we are offered contemporary re-recordings of some of those songs, produced by Stan Endicott and John Rosaco featuring a bevy of lead vocals from California praise sessions such as Annie Barbour, Susie Stevens and the wonderfully voiced (and named) Tommy Funderburk. When this cassette arrived I was quite hopeful of its quality due to the presentation. 'Very nice,' I thought. Unfortunately my hopes were dashed by the first song, never mind the rest. They try to bring "I Will Enter His Gates" ("He Has Made Me Glad" as they called it) up to date and fail! It's not that the musicians are in any way poor. It just doesn't work. Throughout the album the producers try to revamp classics like "We Will Glorify" and the old hymn "Softly And Tenderly" but often they just do not seem to cut the grade. The one good effort was "Beautiful", which is sung in a R&B style by Oren Waters which works fairly well but again is no eye opener. All in all this collection has no real chance of competing with the best praise around though it works well as background music.
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