Reviewed by Tony Cummings

The marketing gloves are off in the States and seem­ingly every Christian music company is talking 'praise and worship' and planning new series to try and rival the sales phenomenon that is Hosanna! Music. UK recipients of their products are therefore awash in a continuing flood of new releases. It's ironic that Maranatha! Music, for so-many-years the pioneers of P&W albums with their 'Praise' series, should be forced to respond with a series as tepidly derivative as 'Songs Of Hope'. The sleeve tells us 'Songs Of Hope' is "active praise, upbeat, aggressive, congregational music that declares the mighty works of God" for which more cynical brethren could read "sounds like Hosanna! Music". So what else to say? This is the second in the series, the songs are tried-and-tested and I've heard a lot, lot better

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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