Reviewed by Andrew Rolfe

"Groundbreaking technology brings together both audio and visual." I wouldn't call a DVD groundbreaking. The Copyright year for this album is 2007, so I am assuming the author of the cover sleeve blurb just awoke from some truly groundbreaking cryogenic deep sleep. The music too is nothing radically different from anything else one might hear on a modern worship album, and the audio-visual stuff is pleasant and crystal clear but not exactly Hollywood: still images being skewed or rotated gently; video of hands playing guitars or pianos. There is nothing wrong with this compilation (I am enjoying "How Great Is Our God" as I type), it's just that the techno-hype grates somewhat. Actually, the DVD side might lead one astray, so to speak. Unless you know the songs or have a copy of the inlay (yes, lyrics are provided) you'll have to look at the on-screen subtitles and I imagine this could become a distraction, even though the images fit the context of the words being sung. The songs are popular, pleasant, gentle, standard. A one-word description might be "comfortable": a large, spongy worship resource sofa to seat the entire home group. But is it really necessary? There is usually someone who can play something in the home group, guitar, bagpipes. . . but if yours has only musically-challenged Christians, then this hybrid could be for you. At a rate of three songs per session and a once per fortnight meet up, it will keep you happy for 10 weeks. . . Buy the first two as well and you'll not have a repeated song for well over half a year. Not bad. From this perspective the album(s) could be seen as a good investment. Songs (15 in total) come from the pens of Matt Redman, Stuart Townend and Noel and Tricia Richards, to name a few. Three musicians provide keyboard (with programming) and guitars. Eight singers perform the tracks, some solo, some with backing vocals. Amongst them are names to be found in the Cross Rhythms artist database, others take a bit of scouting around in cyberspace. All of them are good enough to lead your worship time, or that or your church for that matter. I have the sneaky feeling though that most home groups will stick to playing the CD over the living room stereo: isn't one of the reasons for Home Groups to get us away from TV for an evening? All in all, a small bunch of musicians provide a small group with a virtual worship team very much better than you average Christian bagpiper.

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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