Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

As far as homegrown church projects are concerned, there are always inherent weaknesses when a music group gets together to write, arrange and record songs. It seems that one of the downsides of the charismatic renewal of the past 25 years is that worship songs often regurgitate the same old clichés and if you're a worship group who have grown up singing those songs, that influence is bound to be very prevalent in your songs. Thus Bristol Community Church should be commended for having the determination to capture some of their songs on 'Soaring' because it's a difficult task doing so. Now that we're here, although the songs represent timeless truths, explored by members of the team, there is precious little here, which is original although the easy listening musical arrangements are fine and the vocal performances are tuneful if not always strong. At one extreme you have the calypso of "Move It On Up" and the bluesy rock of "I Will Fly"; most of this falls into a classically influenced easy listening category.

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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