Reviewed by Mark Cribben

A 17 track compilation featuring many of the Australian megachurch's worship highlights focussing primarily on the early to mid naughties with a few earlier songs thrown in for good measure. The album showcases the gradual transition from the Darlene Zschech dominated era of Hillsong through to the more Reuben Morgan/Joel Houston/Hillsong United dominated one. There is no clear measure for what is meant by 'The Very Best...', is it the most melodic, or most popular around the world, or the ones that display the most professional musicianship? Who knows and, quite frankly, who cares? If you like modern, melodic, soft rock and pop songs to worship to, most of which featuring soaring choruses, big backing vocals and passionate leads it really doesn't get any better than this! From the youthful rock exuberance of opener "Salvation Is Here" to the majestic and anthemic closer "Mighty To Save", there are no duds here. Darlene still has her hand in this album with the songs "Worthy Is The Lamb" and "The Potter's Hand" both still fresh and powerful. It is tough to pull out favourites as all of these songs are strong. Personally, I love the simple melody of "For All You've Done" made more interesting by the drum dominated verse leading to a full on rock chorus. Other standouts for me are "The Stand", "Hallelujah", "Worthy Is The Lamb" and "Mighty To Save".

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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Based in Sydney, Australia, Hillsong is one of the world’s fastest-growing ministries, with a 25,000-plus strong congregation in Australia, as well as the largest evangelical church in London, and churches in Capetown, Kiev and Stockholm.

This definitive collection brings together the top songs from Hillsong worship titles from the past few years. From the classic Shout To The Lord to the current number 1 song in churches Mighty To Save this is a must-have collection for every Hillsong fan. It’s also a perfect choice for a customer looking for a Praise & Worship album packed with church-tested, great worship songs.