Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Sequels can be disappointing: what we are being offered in this collection are, in effect, numbers 61 to 120 in someone else's list of favourite hymns. The compiler is Denis Blackham and we are not told what criteria he used in making his selection. Happily there are so many great hymns in circulation that these 60 are in no way second rate, even if some of them would not make it into my personal top 100. There are too many to allow individual comment so let us content ourselves with some statistics. 10 are by contemporary composers with Chris Bowater, Timothy Dudley-Smith and Graham Kendrick gaining four entries each. From those who have passed on James Montgomery (1771-1854) comes top with six. There are no performer credits given but all are sung clearly so that we can follow without using the words and with some nice touches in some of the arrangements: an embellishment here, a pretty descant there, but never enough to detract from the point. The end result is perhaps a little too homogenous to want to play all three CDs in one go but this is still a reasonably useful resource if you can overcome the cheap 'n' cheerful packaging.

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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