Reviewed by Niazi Fetto

If MOR has to exist, then this is how it ought to be done. The 11th recording in this series (reviewed CR 11) featured none other than the Violet Burning and, by injecting a dose of originality and guts into the tired praise format finally laid to rest my lifelong cynicism regarding contemporary praise and worship. So what about this one? Carl Tuttle is the composer and worship leader in the first half of this offering and uses his rich, full voice to good effect in performing a series of conventionally-styled but polished worship anthems. The "worship team" band perform superbly and the female backing vocals, despite sounding the way they always do, produce some sweet harmonising. John Barnett's set, believe it or not, uses no keyboards and actually features guitar solos. He has a youthful, occasionally Michael W Smith-esque voice and, although his songs are similar in style to Carl Turtle's, his half of the album definately moves in a more contemporary direction. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of vocal solos. It was slightly disappointing to hear nothing from the congregation except one round of polite applause on what is supposed to be a live album. Nevertheless, there are some real gems here, performed by some pretty talented musicians. Number 14 it may be, but shun it not.

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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