Reviewed by Richard Toller

The best hymns are powerful, personal and packed with biblical and theological truth; they can help any generation to worship and can be effective in variety of musical styles. This is a double CD compilation of hymns from various albums produced by Tom Fettke and Billy Ray Hearn, uniform in style: choral singing, impeccably sung and backed by orchestra which at best is powerful without being intrusive when appropriate, restrained and gentle when it needs to be, though occasionally the orchestral arrangement is heavy-handed for the more contemplative and personal hymns. Some solo voices would add welcome variety to the choral. Many of the hymns featured stand alone, others come into medleys, sometimes leaving you wanting to hear the whole hymn when you only get a verse or two. The selection covers many of the best known hymns, though some are probably more familiar in America than this side of the Atlantic, and there are some startling omissions: can you have "the ultimate collection" of hymns without "Thine Be The Glory" or "And Can It Be"? The best compilations are satisfying to listen to right through; others are best in small doses, either being so varied as to lack continuity or so uniform as to lose freshness after a while. This falls into the latter category, but is a reasonable collection of choral hymns.

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