Reviewed by Jon Wilson

This is a double album full of covers by various artists from the mainstream section of the Christian market. The first CD features mostly big selling solo singers such as Pam Thum, Amy Grant. Julie Miller, etc. "Be In My Heart" by Cliff Richard is improved by Phil Keaggy. who gives the song a louder and rockier feel with some great guitar playing (no surprises there). Other tracks that stand out arc Margaret Becker's cover of the old The Impressions' classic "People Get Ready" and the Allies' rendition of the ancient Orioles/Elvis doo wopper "Crying In The Chapel", which has some very King's Xish vocal harmonies. CD two consists mostly of artists considered more alternative than those on the first disc. DBA's jungle version of Dionne Warwick's "I Say A Little Prayer" made me laugh quite severely! Hopefully that was their intention. Johnny Q Public cover Dylan's "Serve Somebody" very well and Split Level do an excellent version of "Twist In My Sobriety" by Tanita Tikaram. The best track though is Uthanda's reworking of Gary Newman's "Care". Nice one. However, for every good cover on here there are a handful of duds. Too many use the same formula of over produced country rock, used too often in CCM. To do covers convincingly is hard enough but most of these become quite boring. Some fail completely, such as "40" by Disco Saints (who totally ruin a good Us song) and "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music" by Geoff Moore. All of the tracks are taken from albums so this isn't really essential if you already own the albums by your favourite artists. An ambitious idea that doesn't really work.

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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