Reviewed by David Cranson

25 tracks of "worship" music, which, as the blurb would have you believe, is the "ultimate contemporary worship collection . . ." I have to admit that worship music to me really needs to be heard and be partaken of in the setting for which it was meant. In thus saying I will also admit that on first listening tracks 1 and 2 merged, I didn't realise that there was a change of tracks. On second listening there is a gap, but the style of music, singing and tempo is so similar as to make the tracks almost indistinguishable from each other. There are two CDs. One is 'Fast Rising' and the other is 'Emerging'. Hmm... Some of the fast rising stuff goes back to 1992 - not very fast rising then. On the 'Emerging' CD it is a bit better, with the oldest song being nearly five years old. Most is from 2002/3, so again, does it really take nearly two years for worship music to emerge from hiding into the light of a church day? Of the music itself, some of it is very good - "Trading My Sorrows" by Paul Beloche and Lincoln Brewster. This is a live recording, which lends the song the impetus and feeling that worship music cried out for. This also applies to the Darrell Evans track, "Fields Of Grace". "You Are Holy..." by Jonathan Noel is bouncy and heartfelt and very good. Some of the other tracks tend to fit into the recognisable format for worship music. Safe, mid-paced and - to be honest - slightly dull. I don't doubt the sincerity of the singers and musicians, it's just that some of it all sounds the same, basically. Another thing - do we really need to hear "My Glorious" again, or indeed "Here I Am To Worship"? Best of all on CD 1 is "God Is Great" from United Live. Which is exactly what it says on the tin! That's CD 1. On the second CD things kinda move on like they did on the first one. The first couple of tracks are quite uplifting and bounce along nicely, but "Friend Of God" by Michael Gungor and Israel Houghton, whilst very upbeat and loud, is a wee bit repetitive. "We Lift You Up" by Glenn Packiam follows the well worn path of crashing intro, followed by quieter verse, followed by louder chorus, followed by... leading to big build up at the end. Nothing wrong with it, quite well done, actually, but it's all been done before. I thought that worship had broadened it's horizons by now. There was no recognisable style difference. You can visualise the band(s), lead singer bouncing up and down whilst playing his acoustic guitar, the rest of the people bouncing along and the crowd bouncing up and down too. Nothing really new.

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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