Reviewed by Brendan O'Regan

You'll need to be open to the idea of rocking the Christmas classics to like this one. Right from the start Lincoln Brewster rocks "Joy To The World" and it won't be everybody's cup of Christmas cheer. But then the album is aimed at young people and they may well be impressed. And though a children's album it's not all happy clappy - I particularly liked the way old and new are combined (despite the unwieldy title) in "He Made A Way In A Manger/Away In A Manger". This has quite a bit of depth and substance. Brewster isn't the only guest soloist, and my favourite track is "Adore Him", a beautiful contemporary reworking of "Come Let Us Adore Him" featuring Kari Jobe. Like quite a few other songs this opens with a short reading from one of the "kids" involved in the project. Their voices are used to particularly good effect on this track. Cathy Burton features on "Silent Night" and blends in nicely with the children's voices. Other tracks, like the moving "Christmas Offering", have excellent but uncredited lead singers. This is a compilation album and eight of the 12 tracks are taken from a previous collection, Shout Praises Kids: 'Christmas', so check you don't have some of these already.

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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