Search - John St John :: 50 Hymns & Praise

You can get twice the number of these tracks at the same pri

Bruce in Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill, NC, USA | 01/25/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As best I can tell, Madacy first released the 3-CD box set entitled "100 Best Loved Hymns" in 2001, featuring various artists performing traditional classics. Since then, those same 100 tracks -- same singers, same musicians, same arrangements -- have been mixed and matched into so many other CDs that I keep uncovering them. Some or all of these original tracks have been used in different combinations to produce: "100 Hymns and Praise Classics" (4-CD box set), attributed to 'Various Artists'; "50 Hymns & Praise Favorites" (2-CD set) and "50 Hymns & Praises" (3 CDs), attributed to the Joslin Grove Choral Society; "A Treasury of Golden Hymns" and "50 Amazing Hymns", attributed to the Great Plains Chorale; and "Inspirations: 50 Best Loved Hymns", disingenuously attributed to Thomas Kinkade solely because he provided the cover art. All of these CDs are posted separately on the Amazon site.



The 2-CD set being offered in this posting contains only half of these 100 tracks. But, at the time of this writing, the 3- and 4-CD sets containing the full 100 tracks can be purchased for the same price as this smaller set -- perhaps for even less on Amazon Marketplace. Thus, it makes sense to buy one of those 100-track sets (e.g., "100 Best Loved Hymns") rather than this smaller collection.



Regarding the content of this oft-released, multi-titled, multi-attributed collection of tracks, the hymns are sung in traditional arrangements, often with a full choir accompanied by a piano or organ. Some are by soloists or smaller groups of singers, accompanied by a piano. If you're looking for a solid traditional presentation of these classics, you will probably not be disappointed. I give the music 4 stars rather than 5 because some of this choral group's soloists on some tracks -- while good singers -- have voices that are perhaps not sufficiently smooth and mellow to allow them to come across well as soloists on a recording."