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Chris Tomlin - 'How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection'

No New Songs, But Plenty of Old Favorites

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Chris Tomlin - How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection

Chris Tomlin - How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection

EMI
Most "best of" collections are made up of fan favorites, radio hits and award winners, and since Chris Tomlin is one of the most sung Christian artists in the world, according to CCLI, there was plenty of music to choose from for this release. Because of that, I shouldn't be too surprised that How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection doesn't include any new songs, but since Chris writes such amazing music, I can't say that I wasn't disappointed (at least a little bit) that there was nothing new for me to sink my teeth into. Now, that being said, the new spin that he put on some of my favorite worship songs made up for it.

Plenty of Stunning Moments

  • Style: Worship
  • 15 Songs
  • Time: 73:30
  • Release Date: November 15, 2011
  • Label: Tooth & Nail

The music of Chris Tomlin touches fan all the world. Ask any one person what Tomlin's best song to date is and you'll likely get more answers than you can keep track of. For him and his team, picking 15 songs to call "essential" couldn't have been an easy task. They pulled it off admirably though, with 14 of the 15 being tunes that he wrote himself along with "Amazing Grace." Added up, those choices give us over an hour of glorious worship and plenty of "I just went to the Throne" moments.

One such stunner is the new recording of "Forever." Though the song itself is ten years old, it is just as relevant today as it was when we first heard it on The Noise We Make and the updated sound is exquisite. The same can be said of the new recordings of "We Fall Down" and both new versions of "How Great Is Our God." The "World Edition" of "How Great Is Our God," the song named the Dove Award winner for Worship Song of the Year in both 2008 and 2006, as well as the Song of the Year in 2006, is what I imagine Heaven will sound like with so many different ages and languages represented.

If you're looking for other Dove Award winners, "Indescribable" and "Holy Is the Lord," both from the 2005 Praise & Worship Album of the Year, Arriving, are included, as are "Made To Worship" and "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)," which are both from the 2007 Pop/Contemporary and Praise & Worship Albums of the Year (to name a few).

Bottom line - I could give you glowing praise for each individual track, but I doubt I would be telling you anything that you don't already know. Chris Tomlin doesn't write or record bad songs, so you know up front that any collection of his music is going to be great. This particular collection topped all of my expectations (which were high to start with). I can't see anyone feeling like they were let down after listening to it.

How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection Track List:

  1. How Great Is Our God (World Edition)
  2. Our God
  3. Forever (new recording)
  4. The Wonderful Cross
  5. Famous One
  6. We Fall Down (new recording)
  7. Indescribable
  8. Holy Is the Lord
  9. Enough
  10. Made To Worship
  11. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
  12. Jesus Messiah
  13. God Of This City
  14. I Will Rise
  15. How Great Is Our God

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.

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