Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

The New Wine event at Royal Bath and West Showground, Somerset is an important part of the Christian calendar. This is the first studio recording associated with New Wine and features some recordings from Ireland's Eoghan Heaslip, former Shine member Nicki Rogers, Canadian veteran David Ruis and Cheltenham-based worship man David Gate. Here we have 11 original worship songs that aim to help the listener encounter God. Despite the undoubted prowess of the personnel involved and the God-glorifying nature of the songs, this is regrettably a rather underwhelming collection of lacklustre performances that fail to inspire. The main problem here is the lack of variety in the album's pace with the vast majority of the songs on offer defaulting to a pedestrian speed that makes them sound unintentionally morose. 'New Wine Worship' cannot be faulted for its crisp production values and for attempting to bring some new worship songs to the public ear. But, without the ability to shift up a gear when needed, this release is largely run of the mill.

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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