Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

A worship collective made up of 17 musicians, singers and songwriters across the UK's Black Country, Room 1 Project's eponymous debut was recorded in a living room over the space of a weekend. Not surprisingly, there is a homely nature to proceedings with the group succeeding in not sounding merely like an impromptu time of worship at the local house group but rather a structured selection of self-penned songs that pour out glory to God whilst showcasing a number of different vocalists including Nikita Baker, Alice Harland and Isaac Watson. Unfortunately, the majority of tracks on offer tend to sound no different from your bog standard worship release and, with most of the songs sharing the same somewhat plodding tempo and a tendency to be overlong and repetitive, more thought around varying styles, structure and length is required to help keep the listener's attention. Whilst the musicianship on display is competent enough, the decision to stick to the default setting of guitars, bass, keys and percussion for the most part without embellishments further adds to the regrettably indistinctive feel of this debut.

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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