Reviewed by Tony Cummings

The Wow Gospel brand was launched in 1998 and every year has delivered a quality double CD sampling of the sounds of modern gospel. This year's compilation is well up to standard with killer album tracks pulled from Kirk Franklin's 'Hello Fear', Mary Mary's 'Something Big', Deitrick Haddon's 'Church On The Moon', 21:03's 'Evolved' and the Soul Seekers' 'Soul Seekers II'. It's good to see that after years of resistance hip-hop is finally getting a little bit of exposure on gospel radio and therefore on the Wow Gospel albums and Lecrae's "Boasting" is well up to scratch while gospel devotees living in Britain, frustrated by the UK labels' neglect of such acts as Earnest Pugh, Wess Morgan and Mali Music, will be pleased to at least get a track each from them. Possibly my favourite cut is "He Lives" by Fred Hammond, a blistering remix from his 'God, Love, Romance' album of a song originally heard on Fred's 'Somethin' About Love' album. As usual, Disc One is more urban orientated and Disc Two features more traditional gospel sounds though the perfunctory and rather gauche sleevenote pointing out the fact that all the material here emanates from Los Angeles seems like an afterthought. Nevermind. This is still a fine gospel sampler.

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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