Reviewed by Norman Smith

As an all-age worship leader myself, my mouth watered at the prospect of opening a new can of material which might spill over into our church services. How disappointed I was to discover just a load of froth and little substance in this compilation. With the jug of anticlimax pouring forth, three areas of bad taste can be highlighted immediately: Firstly, the worship music is a tinny slip-slop of keyboard, drum and bass sequencing which has “economy” written throughout, at the expense of any serious musicianship. Secondly, the material itself is a largely insipid concoction, a tacky mixture of sugary choruses, together with two or three trad hymns, the choice being very strange: employing traditional hymns for all-age worship requires careful planning so as not to alienate younger children with incomprehensible language, but include them fully in worship. Odd indeed, then, to put in “O Worship The King” and “How Deep The Father's Love”. Phrases such as “Pavilioned in splendour and girded with praise”, “Thy bountiful care” and “Sweetly distils in the dew and the rain” coupled with words like “wretch”, “mar” and “searing” are utterly meaningless to my brightish 11year-old. Thirdly, and by no means finally, the numbing blandness of the fizzless American children’s choir, coupled with the cheap production leaves you gasping for the real thing.

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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