Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

One third of EMI's recent budget priced trilogy of gospel collections along with 'Gospel's Best Women' and 'Gospel's Best Choirs', this CD is intended as an introduction to 10 of the contemporary male gospel artists in EMI's catalogue. As one would expect from a showcase collection, the CD consists of a number of different styles, and the disc kicks off with one of the highlights, the high energy, victorious "Never Seen The Righteous Forsaken" from Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers. Other up-tempo tracks include the celebratory "I Am Redeemed" from Micah Stampley. There are soulful ballads such as Smokie Norful's "Still Say Thank You", thanking God for blessings in spite of mess and troubles in our lives, and Darwin Hobb's "You Are God" declaring God's divinity. There are a couple of more flat moments but most are uplifting and the disc ends with a lone urban R&B track, "Beautiful" from Brent Jones & The T P Mobb, a prayer that God would take us and make something beautiful out of our lives. A decent collection, presupposing of course that gospel's best men are all on EMI!

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