Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

'Our Heart' is the follow-up CD to Integrity's 'Because We Believe', featuring 13 of Hosanna! Music's songwriters sharing their latest songs. In a similar vein to the Vineyard Cafe CDs, this is billed as "capturing these songwriters in a coffee-house setting (complete with smoke & fried breakfasts, I guess!) with a very live and honest sound." A quite refreshing production with very usable songs, good musicianship and interesting instrumental arrangements. Most of the writers you may not immediately recognise, and the CD inlay helpfully gives examples of other well known songs by each one. The style varies from simple acoustic to a 'Yee Hah!' country style knees-up on "For The Lord Is Good." Personal favourites are the title track "Our Heart" by John Chisum and George Searcy, which expresses our heart and desire to see the nations worship Jesus, and "Blessed Are The Broken" by David Baroni, expressing the importance of our being broken before God, as Jesus was. One criticism would be the occasional tendency to repeat ending lines over and over again, extending songs by up to three minutes. This can be fine in a worship service, but when you've listened to it for the fifth time in your car, you start to reach for the track skip button! One other point that this CD tends to give force to the argument is that it is not necessarily good for everyone who writes good songs to sing them on record! On the whole though, a useful resource of new songs rather than something to keep on your A play-list.

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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