Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

Not to be confused with Maranatha! Music, the Maranatha Community (no exclamation mark) reside in Manchester and this CD is nearly an hour of musical soundscapes and spoken meditations on the subject of love. The words were written by Dennis Wrigley, the music is the work of Paul Reid and Andy Wright, and the whole thing was mastered by Roy Rainey at Upstream Studios in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. I must confess I'm not a fan of this sort of thing, I'd rather have the words on a page in front of me with music in the background. Additionally, the whole thing stands or falls on the quality of the prose and the recitative ability of those reading it. The best readings have an Adrian Plass-type quality (I'm assuming the reader is Dennis Wrigley, although the sleevenotes are silent on this point), but some of the rest is rather flat and dull, and the soundscapes have a decidedly soporific effect. Okay if you're a devotee, but I suspect of limited appeal to the general CD buyer.

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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