Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

A variety of British Catholic artists have gathered with the noble intent of promoting peacemaking amongst parishes, schools and communities for 50 days either side of the Olympic Games with a pound from each sale going to Catholic peace charity Pax Christi. Unfortunately, this is a somewhat ramshackle and amateurish affair with much of the content failing to make the grade. Catholic singer/songwriter Gerry Coates dominates proceedings and, whilst there is some nice guitar work on his songs, his shaky vocal delivery and the poor production values of the likes of "Enemies Can Become Friends" and "Forgiveness" leave a fair bit to be desired. Elsewhere, a speaker called Jillie shares her thoughts on peace in a handful of spoken word sections whilst the truly painful "Peaceful Moon" - performed by a children's choir from Canterbury's St Anselm's School - should have been left on the cutting room floor. Contributions from other artists such as Paul Dempsey ("Seek Peace") and Jimena and Martin Brown ("Come, Let's Cry Out") are passable enough but in truth, it's only the contributions "Unshakeable" and "Prince Of Peace" from electronic pop outfit Ooberfuse which are of any real quality. Regrettably then, there aren't enough good tracks to save this well-intended but poorly executed compilation.

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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