Life giving resources. Faithfully delivered.
FREE delivery on orders over £10
Serving over 2 million Christians in the UK
with Bibles, Books and Church Supplies
Our Buy-Now-Pay-Later accounts used
by over 4,000 UK Churches & Schools
Lynn Williamson
Songs of Christmas is the compilation of choice for this year’s festive season.
The 10 track album titled Do You Hear What I Hear? features top Christian artists including Casting Crowns, Third Day and newcomers Rhett Walker Band.
The arrangements are fresh while retaining the timeless quality of the of classic hymns and songs.
Matt Maher’s version of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is a perfect example. The young worship leader sensitively delivers the hymn while adding a little Christmas sparkle.
Kerrie Roberts delivers a stunning and rightly powerful rendition of O Holy Night while Anthem Lights put their pop fuelled sound to title track Do You Hear What I Hear?
Tenth Avenue North have managed to make an already cheesy song even more cheesy in Deck The Halls. They’ve also cheekily added in a reference to Christ, despite the song originally having nothing to do with him! The falsetto vocals towards the end make the whole production feel rather overblown, but it’s clear the band are enjoying themselves.
Casting Crowns bring proceedings back to normality with O Come All Ye Faithful. Taken from their 2010 album Peace On Earth it’s nothing new for long-time fans of the band.
If you already have plenty of music by these artists, there’s little point picking up Did You Hear What I Hear? Having said this, the recording does live up to its claim of “the perfect playlist for Christmas”.
Building 429 produce the heaviest song on the album in What Child Is This? Their powerful rendition is heartfelt and hardhitting. Rhett Walker Band’s offering to the compilation is a welcome and unique one. You won't hear their version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel elsewhere. It isn’t the easiest song to put a fresh spin on, but thanks to Rhett’s unmistakably unique voice, the arrangement is interesting from the outset.
The Royal Royal will be a band title unfamiliar to most and purely from a musical point of view, their contribution to the CD – which is also the final track - feels strange and disjointed. On a CD that promotes fairly standard arrangements of classic Christmas songs, Rescue (O Holy Night) sticks out.
Ending with the words “Jesus is here”, the recording sets the tone for the true meaning of Christmas.
All in all it’s a pleasant compilation – and certainly the best Christian one to be released this month. Guaranteed to help even the biggest scrooge into the Christmas spirit, Do You Hear What I Hear? is a triumph.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Spiritual Growth
Long overshadowed by the celebrations of Easter Sunday, Lent is being rediscovered as a sacred time of reflection and renewal in its own right and a time of preparation for the joyous seasonal finale.
Featured
Here’s our pick of the top 3 Stocking Fillers this Christmas. You can find even more at our Christmas Store.
News
Heading to a screen near you soon, The Most Reluctant Convert is a feature-length movie about the life and faith of one of England’s greatest Christian writers and thinkers: C.S. Lewis.
News
Go deeper with this year's brilliant Advent Bible Study Guides.
Interview
Feby tells her compelling story in her book Walking Him Home. After wrestling with grief and suffering, she shares how God’s healing and faithfulness is enabling her to step into her new life and ministry.
Featured
We are currently in a strange situation. Bible sales are up, but the number of people reading the Bible is going down. Even stranger, this situation is nothing new. There has always been a difference between the number of people who own a Bible and the number of people who regularly read their Bibles.