Reviewed by Mark Goodge

Subtitled '0 Landmark Christian Songs Of The '70s, '80s and '90s' this double CD album can almost be reviewed without listening to it. The name gives it away, and it does pretty much what it says on the tin. Having said that, the selection of songs is a bit skewed towards more recent music - it takes until Keith Green's "You Put The Love In My Life" at track nine to leave the '90s. I can t really fault the overall selection, though - any list of 30 best songs is bound to be a somewhat arbitrary choice. The artists are mostly the usual suspects - Jars Of Clay, Amy Grant, Larry Norman, Rich Mullins, Carman, Petra and Michael W Smith are all here and, while I wouldn't necessarily pick all of the tracks for my own personal favourites, there isn't anything that doesn't seem to belong. A more valid criticism is that the tracks don't always seem to be the obvious choice from the artist's output - Delirious?, for example, are represented by "I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever", which, while a good song, isn't one that most fans would consider the band's best. Stylistically, the album is also rather limited, hardly straying from typically American-sounding pop/soft rock/gospel. It s this narrow interpretation that is the main flaw - if it had been called '30 Mostly American Landmark Christian Pop, Soft Rock And Gospel Songs Of The '70s, '80s And '90s' then it would be a 10-squarer, but it wouldn't be anything like as snappy a title! But don't let that put you off - if you like the sort of stuff that crops up on the annual WOW compilations, then you II definitely like this, and it's worth it for some of the genuinely classic tracks it contains.

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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