Album Of The Day: City On A Hill by Various Artists

Album Art of the City On A Hill album - In the center, an illustration of three people with egg-shaped heads and somewhat triangle-shaped bodies wearing colorful clothing standing and singing and playing instruments in the foreground off to the right. Behind them and to the left, a large hill is there and on it is three buildings, one a church. There's an angel flying near the city looking down on it. To the right of the angel it says 'City On A Hill' with the subtitle 'Songs Of Worship And Praise' printed in black. Around the edge, on a dark border, there's a list of all the artists involved in the project printed in white.

Released 25 years ago yesterday, this was an album full of new recordings of praise and worship-style songs from some of the biggest names in Christian music. Producer Steve Hindalong had done something similar in the '90s with the At The Foot Of The Cross albums, writing new hymns and similar style music for prayer and worship, and getting some of his friends in the music industry to sing them. Here a very similar formula is used, and with names like Jars of Clay, Third Day, Caedmon's Call, Sixpence None The Richer, The Choir and more lending their talents and in some cases songwriting, it gained a lot more popularity than Hindalong's previous albums of a similar style. "God Of Wonders" is still in the top 100 songs sung at churches and is one of the best songs here. Jars of Clay song "This Road" is a great closer, and they also cover "The Stone" by Jonathan Noel, giving that song a lot more recognition. It's fun to hear some beautiful duets like Leigh Nash of Sixpence with Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay and Mac Powell of Third Day singing with Caedmon's Call. Also included are some of the final recordings of Gene Eugene, who passed away shortly before this was released. Some might argue the success of this album accelerated the turning of Christian music into only worship music, and maybe that's true, but it's fun to hear these pop/rock artists come together for a slightly more subdued, more contemplative collection of original songs.

Release Year: 2000
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Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

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