Reviewed by Brendan O'Regan

When is a Christmas album not a Christmas album? Well, this CD is an oddity. One might well assume from the title and the packaging that this was a Christmas album, but it's not. Instead it's just a sampler to highlight some of Kingsway's releases put out to encourage Christmas sales. The inner sleeve is meant to promote the albums these songs come from, but even then there are problems - while you can see a thumbnail of each album cover, you can't always make out what the album title is, so you'd have to do some research if you wanted to buy the album. All that being said, there are some good songs here. I particularly liked "The Power Of The Cross"' by Stuart Townend, with its disarming piano backing and sweet vocals and melody. "Be Lifted High" by Bethel is a fine worship song. "My Hope" by Paul Baloche features some effective harmonies and an important theme. "New Day" by Ben Cantelon is an infectious uptempo rock anthem, "Compas" by Tom Read develops a useful image for life's journey, while "Build Your Kingdom Here" by Rend Collective Experiment has a driving Mumford and Son vibe. So all in all, there's plenty of good music even if the packaging is questionable.

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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