Reviewed by John Cheek

A few years' ago, one of the non-terrestrial TV channels regularly ran an advert for a compilation album featuring the-greatest-worship-songs-ever, or something. The commercial would proceed to run a trailer at the bottom of the screen, naming a number of well-known worship leaders, against a backdrop of different worship groups performing at worship events. The advert failed to mention a single song included in the release, nor the God presumably the focus of such worship. To the sceptic, it appeared like an exercise in the cult of the worship leader. It was with some trepidation therefore, that I approached this triple-disc compilation. Thankfully, I needn't have worried. Not only does the packaging actually mention some examples of the tracks contained within, on the cover, the contents have been chosen and sequenced with indeed, integrity. Among them "Cornerstone" and "10,000 Reasons". As those compiling the album have reduced the different worship leaders to just one or two songs each - in most cases - it's meant that they've scoured high and low for the best renditions of many familiar favourites. more or less. Not every cover is going to stand up to the original (for example, the Newsboys' live version of "Your Love Never Fails" isn't half as good as the Jesus Culture rendition). While on the subject of Jesus Culture, they and California's other worship powerhouse, Bethel Music, are the most glaring omissions from this compilation presumably because our American cousins didn't want to license tracks. But with such an abundance of good things here it hardly matters. One particular delight is Keith and Kristyn Getty's own arrangement of "In Christ Alone", featuring Allison Krauss - a refreshing take on a modern hymn classic, leaving us free to savour Stuart Townsend's version of "The Lord's My Shepherd", which is about as good as any version of it I've heard. At times, this compilation shows how some modern praise has returned to traditional hymn-like structures within the composition stage; elsewhere, it shows how today's worship sounds so similar to pop rock CCM and vice-versa as to be almost indistinct in style. No doubt there will be some who will accuse the 51-song collection of "triumphalism", but that wouldn't be fair. "Blessed Be Your Name" paints a picture of the Christian life as being potentially hard and painful. "The Servant King" reminds us that service and sacrifice are always an integral part of worshipping God. With five per cent of the price of the album going to the Christian famine-relief charity Tearfund, it leaves me with just one thing to say, and that's if you have to buy a worship compilation, this is the one.

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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