Reviewed by Catherine Chung

The Brooklyn Tabernacle Singers here perform their own professional and polished versions of many classic choruses and hymns.  The album is divided into seven separate tracks, each of which merge several songs which seem to deal with a particular theme, e.g., blessing the Lord (track one) or the Lord's presence (track six).  The album offers a total of 40 minutes of playing time.  Roughly half of the songs are of a slow, worshipful tempo, like Hosanna or Maranatha, while the other half are of a more upbeat, typical gospel style like Sounds Of Blackness.  The highlights for me were the solo introductions on "We've Come To Bless Your Name" and "Surely The Presence" and the funky, foot-stomping style of the five songs in track four, "Walking With The King" and the three songs in track seven, "In The Name Of Jesus".  However, the general lack of creativity does perhaps let this album down a little, in that, although the talent of the performers is obvious, the songs sound a little 'tame', and lack that extra 'spark' that would make them able to compete with the others in my CD rack.

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.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.