Reviewed by Graeme Crawford

Spanning their career from 1993's 'Don't Censor Me', up to 2006's 'Adios', this compilation shows why Audio Adrenaline have been missed since their retirement in 2007. Their powerful brand of catchy, good time, pop rock combined with highly spiritual lyrics has never really been replaced, despite their strong influence on current bands such as Sanctus Real and Hawk Nelson. 'The Ultimate Collection' draws heavily on their biggest hit album 'Underdog', and their last full studio album, 2005's 'Until My Heart Caves In'. Listening to the tracks from these two albums shows the changes that occurred in Mark Stuart's voice, as the strain is quite evident on the more recent tracks. He still gives great effort and performance, but "Starting Over" and "Clap Your Hands" highlight the sacrifice he made for his art and ministry. Despite this, this two-disc package is everything a "best of" album should be: packed with the songs that made Audio Adrenaline special: "Big House", "Get Down", "Underdog", "Never Gonna Be As Big As Jesus", "King", "We're A Band". The first disc contains generally the more up-tempo, bouncy songs while disc two contains more of the thoughtful, introspective numbers, rather than a straight chronological run through. 'The Ultimate Collection' is perfect for those who liked the singles but never got around to getting an album, or those who have yet to discover the magic of AudioA. However, there have been FIVE previous Audio Adrenaline 'Greatest Hits' packages, as well as the two-for-one re-packages of four of their albums in recent years. So, though the music on here is worth 10, its rating is much diminished by the fact that most fans will already have the bulk of these tracks.

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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