Reviewed by Philip Croft

Back in the early '90s Hillsong church in Australia burst onto the scene with a style of worship that was new, fresh and vibrant. Over the years many have copied them adding their own variations. For this album, New York's Christ Tabernacle Church have taken the formula and added a gospel-Latino flavour recognising the cultural diversity of the church. Sadly this sounds too much like it is made to a formula and none of the songs really stay in the memory that long. It's also made somewhat worse by the fact that in places the lyrics (which interestingly are not included on the sleeve) come across as being very amateurish. Nowhere is this more evident than on the penultimate track which is a spoken piece of poetry based around Ezekiel's vision of the valley of the dry bones. Given the "attitude" of the speakers this is presumably meant to appeal to the youth on the streets but is simply cringeworthy (even to someone in his 40s like me) with lines such as, "I'm so low, I'm lo so". One to avoid.

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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