Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

These days when it comes to Ishmael's music, most people think of the long list of children's projects and the seemingly endless years of effective ministry that has helped a few generations of British kids to learn to engage with God through worship. For those with longer teeth, we remember Ishmael as the leader of punk bands like Rev Counta & The Speedoze or Ishmael United. Always more Sham 69 than Sex Pistols, Ish had a knack for a snappy lyric and a three chord bash and now he revisits his old songs, re-recording them with a young abrasive band backing him. The effect is fab and that's not just my personal nostalgia kicking in! He always wrote with a tongue-in-cheek and his humour comes through on the wonderful irony of "Star On Sunday" and the fast paced "Glub Glub". His humour was also powerful when it came to defusing some of the spiritual tension of those days so "I Am Just A Charismatic" was a fun way of dealing with the evangelical/charismatic divide about the baptism in the Spirit. Songs like "We Are In God's Army", "Little Troopers" and "Little Lamb" straddle the divide between his children's work and punk albums. Songs like "Crowd Trouble" and "Bartimaus" are absolute classics and the album contains a nicely rocky version of Ishmael's big worship hit, "Father God I Wonder". 2008 has seen him battling with leukaemia so my prayer is that the title of this album is prophetic and that soon I'll be able to see this band in a live setting thrashing through this material.

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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