Matt Redman - Intimacy/The Friendship And The Fear

Reviewed by Philip Croft

Following the release of ‘Passion For You Name’ and ‘Wake Up My Soul’ as a double album for the price of a single CD, Survivor have now decided to do the same with two more of Matt Redman’s golden oldies. In the unlikely event that you’ve never heard or even heard of "Intimacy" let me just say that this is one of the Cross Rhythms listeners’ top 20 albums of all time and when it was originally released accounted for three of the 15 most played songs on Cross Rhythms that year. Needless to say this is a very, very good album. By contrast ‘Friendship And The Fear’ is not in the same league (though only in the same sense that Newcastle and Liverpool are not in the same league as Arsenal and Manchester United!). For Matt Redman completists there are two previously unreleased bonus tracks, "Find You In The Waiting" which frankly is nothing to write home about and "Prayers Of The Saints" which is an improvised worship session featuring the Psalm Drummers that incredibly clocks in at over 13 and a half minutes for the one song! Despite the length this is a song that draws you into the worship and seems to fly by and is worth the price of the album on its own - so put simply if you don’t own a copy of ‘Intimacy’ go out and buy this, if you do own a copy then go out and buy this anyway for the bonus track.