Reviewed by Paul Poulton

It's easy to eschew preachers who release albums, and sometimes it may be right to do so, but it may be a mistake here. Juanita, known for her forthrightness as an orator, is no slouch when it comes to music either, she has toured with Yolanda Adams and Shelia E as part of the Sisters In The Sprit Tour, that fact alone deserves that this CD should be listened to. This is certainly a well performed set of emotive songs, though things tend to rely pretty heavily on the choir type backing vocals. Proceedings also tend to move away from gospel, featuring some slow stuff that's kind of MOR, and though the ballads have moments in which they soar, they also have a tendency to be slightly podgy around the middle. There's a lot of music on this two disc set, 19 songs and one of them lasts over 17 minutes, the bloated feel is hard to get away from. Juanita (no stranger to controversy) talks about modernising songs, as if it's a bad thing. Rebecca St James' "Above All Else" is a cool song, arranged and sung well. Without doubt, Juanita can sing, it's another string to her bow; she is, as Isaiah puts it, "a threshing sledge with many teeth": the wife of Bishop Thomas Weeks III, who is the pastor of Global Destiny Church, she's also an author, Bible teacher, prophet, psalmist, and media personality. Phew!

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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