Reviewed by Stephen Luff

Redding, California's Bethel Music have quickly gained a reputation for high quality worship albums. Their latest release, billed as pushing the creative boundaries of worship with a totally instrumental album, uses their previously released songs, deconstructed and rearranged to create something quite different. The opener, "What Does It Sound Like", switches between strings and an engaging beat, a little like running a race, while "God I Look To You" has a beautiful worship feel; "Forgiven" in contrast creates an atmosphere of joy and celebration. I especially enjoyed "Worthy Is The Lamb" with its background choir. I have to mention, however, that it took a number of plays of the disc for me to really "tune in" to what the album is all about as it is not like other "instrumental praise" albums and to the casual listener, it can sound a little like a film soundtrack. I did find the sound effects in parts of the album, for example telephone dialling and a ham radio, a little out of place. However, the project will reap rewards with frequent listening.

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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