Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

Since their excellent 2017 debut, 'Freedom's Tree', the music team at Southville Elim Church in Yeovil has obviously not been resting on their laurels (the story of the creation of that album is well worth watching on their website). The church has released three singles since then, now collated on this EP, and the fact that there are only three suggests that they have continued their rigorous song-selection process, rather than giving in to the temptation to start throwing out large collections of variable-quality songs year-on-year, as many churches have done. One of their stated aims in releasing music is "seeking to capture worship moments" and, as Tony Cummings noted in his review of 'Freedom's Tree', they've opted not to go for the quick/cheap live-recording option to do this, but to spend the time/budget producing high-quality studio recordings. As a result, we have here three songs of contrasting character that all feature memorable melodies, strong vocals, creative arrangements (including some good old analogue synth riffs, which I appreciate as a keyboard player!) and meaningful lyrics. Unsurprisingly, given the title, the overall theme is praise and the opening mid-tempo reflection on God's restoration of human brokenness is unequivocal about the only adequate response being to offer our lives to him, and "All The Praise" we have. The strong vocalist on the title track is Keren Felix. The suitably-titled "Breathless", featuring Joel Hampton, is a bouncy celebration of deliverance from the chains of sin and the security of belonging to Jesus - bouncing along to that will certainly leave anyone breathless! Finally, we have "Promise", with a vocal by Tim Williams, continuing that theme of ownership with the line, "The love of the cross signs your name on my soul", committing to always praise the God who has promised so much to us. It is refreshing to hear well-produced worship music that doesn't all have the Nashville-sheen, and to see a church going for quality over quantity. Long may this continue!

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