Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

I think it's a bit rich calling this "favorite" when it contains 16 songs I've never heard before. Isn't that a bit presumptuous? That quibble aside, this does have one redeeming feature! Amongst the usual dreary Nashville pop cover versions of famous carols, artists are actually recording some new Christmas songs! Hurrah! And some of them are pretty good! So you get Big Daddy Weave's "Christ Is Coming", By The Tree's "Christmas Is In My Heart" and Derek Webb's "Deliver Us" which grab attention. It's nice to see some smaller artists sneak on as bonus cuts so maybe for the first time you can check out Enter The Worship Circle's characteristically rootsy acoustic "All Because Of Your Love" and the Kate Miner's stunning version of "Silent Night". She's got such a great voice! Elsewhere there's the usual set of artists like BarlowGirl, Out Of Eden, Exit East, Erin O'Donnell etc etc doing carols! This could have been much worse but the high ratio of new songs makes this pretty good!

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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