Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

If there were an Olympic medal for sprinting through your back catalogue with undignified haste, this album would win gold and beat the world record! 66 songs in 63 minutes makes this album ideal for the psychotic worshipper with a short attention span. Most of these songs enter one ear and don't have the chance to make a dignified exit out the other ear before the next song makes aural contact. 17 medleys are on offer here including a lame sprint through 'Promise Keepers', 'Live Worship', 'March For Jesus'. The most remarkable is hearing the combined excellence of the 15 albums in the Maranatha Praise series miraculously shrunk wrapped into five and a half minutes! Whoever thought of this as a marketing ploy to get people into Maranatha's product needs to be downsized to teaboy. Listening to this, a lot of Maranatha's music sounds sadly old fashioned and their moments of sparkling genius (eg, 'The Live Worship' series) whilst welcome, are few and far between. If you're searching for such moments, this sampler isn't recommended as a route map. To add insult to injury, the medleys themselves are very badly mixed and flow in exactly the same way that concrete doesn't. Uneasy listening even at bargain price.

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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