Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

They say that death is an excellent career move - Elvis Presley is worth millions now, when at the time of his death he was down to his last few hundred thou­sand. Suddenly, at his death, Rich Mullins was feted by a Christian music industry that had largely written him off as a maverick - despite a decade of writing excellent songs. It wasn't until after he died in a car crash in November 1997 that the American Christian industry chose to prise the "Best Songwriter" Dove award from the CCM industry favourite, Steven Curtis Chapman, and give it to Rich posthumously. It was serendipity that at the time of his death, his record company had just released 'Songs', a best of Rich Mullins compilation from his back catalogue. In the wake of his sad and early demise, and before his backing band could complete recording his final songs on the much feted and excellent The Jesus Record', it was 'Songs' that the Christian music public turned to in order to discover what Rich was about. Now we have 'Songs 2' and the album should be entitled 'CASH IN'! This kind of rehashing of his back cata­logue may well lead to a Keith-Green style interminable re-release of his work, and it's sad, because it strongly goes against the spirit of Mullins the man. These are excellent songs from Rich, sort of The Second Best songs of Rich Mullins. If you've never checked out his music, buy the original 'Songs' album and if you're familiar with his stuff, buy his old albums one by one rather than this cynical cash in.

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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