Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

Breakaway as an event began in 1989 when 12 Texas A&M students began to meet every Tuesday night for praise, worship and Bible study. These days, over 4,000 meet in the Reed Arena at Texas A&M every Tuesday night and Breakaway has grown into a full-scale student outreach mission. Unfortunately, the music has a little way to go to catch up, because the majority of the material on this CD consists of cover versions of well known stuff. I'd encourage the songwriters in the worship band to persevere with their own compositions, so that Breakaway can move towards its own musical identity, as these covers are inferior to the original composers' cuts. Another problem I have is that, whilst at 16 songs the track list looks impressive, the running time is only just over 45 minutes; I would have expected a live recording to have more longevity, more improvisation, more worship. It's almost as if they had a timetable to meet - no time to worship the Lord, no time for the Spirit to move, got to get on to the next song because we've only got three quarters of an hour. That's not what live praise and worship is all about and Breakaway needs to learn about spontaneity and letting the Spirit lead and guide. Sorry guys, this is only average.

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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