STYLE: Choral RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 12272- LABEL: Kingsway Music 791 FORMAT: CD Album
Reviewed by Tony Cummings
The Celebration Choir is drawn from many different churches from the city of Sheffield. This was recorded at the Salvation Army Citadel, Sheffield in March 1992. So why so long in releasing it? One soon discovers a few obvious flaws in the mass choir renditions of popular choruses performed here. The basses and baritones are rushing rather badly on "Great Is The Lord" while throughout the sound is at times muzzy with some of the instrumentation almost inaudible. I could go on but I won't. An album of very limited appeal to readers of this magazine and in all honesty to those who aren't directly or indirectly connected to the choir.
Also reviewed in CR41:
'In Praise Of Him' is from 1992 but sounds fresh. There is a totally corking version of "Shine Jesus Shine" but the album leans more on the traditional choral style and I think this is their strength - they aren't bland at all, there is passion and power and I recommend this over most of the 'Production Line Praise Vol 58' type worship albums of recent years. The Celebration Choir come from Sheffield and are drawn from many churches. They make congregational singing of a high order and I can think of many worse ways of spending this month's music allowance.
7 squares
Philip Crawley
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