Back in the mid-90's Kim began writing impromptu reviews of church music CDs (worship music) so that people who were looking for CDs would have an opinion from someone who is also a worship leader and is garnering music for local church use. Up to this point, this was rarely something that was done, because church music was revered as sacred and it was thought that any offering of that sacred worship shouldn't be criticised or evaluated. In fact, Kim wasn't as much a critic as he was an evaluator, helping people find what fit their church. He began posting his reviews on line in a email discussion forum, called the Worship List (website). After a while, when he helped launch Worshipmusic.com, he continued that same concept of trying to help other local church worship leaders and musicians find music that might be applicable to their situations. The reviews continued to be a part of that. Worshipmusic.com went on to grow a staff of writers that would add many more reviews to the collection they have, but Kim continued to participate as a key reviewer. This journal logs all the reviews Kim has written on worship music CDs and projects.
Kim's reviews of CD projects of worship music includes independents, label and main stream recordings, but all having to do with worship music.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at 9:21PM 
There is no other single local church that has had a more profound impact on the song repetoire of the Christian church in the last 20 years than Hillsong Church in Australia. With a series of phenomenally gifted leaders, a catalog of amazingly popular songs, and a staff of skilled musicians, producers and vocalists, Hillsong Church has become nearly synonymous with praise and worship music across the English speaking world. The landmark, breakout album from Hillsong was the 1996 release of "Shout To The Lord". While Hillsong had become moderately popular through a series of its own releases, "Shout To The Lord" was a unique release made under Integrity Music's Hosanna label. Produced under their label, marketed and distributed via the Integrity system throughout the US and other global territories, "Shout To The Lord" became the foundational pivot from which its legendary title track rose to one of the top songs in the world wide church, staying in the top 10 of CCLI rankings for many years.
The album itself contained other songs which would also go on to be worldwide favorites, including: I Believe the Promise, Jesus, Lover of My Soul and The Power of Your Love. The phenomenal success of this album was no one-hit-wonder. For 15 years (and counting) Hillsong Church and its music leaders have produced multiple albums per year, many of which have had some of the highest sales rankings in the genre. The Hillsong song catalog has produced 12 of the current top 100 songs in the Christian church, a phenomenal feat.
One of the primary writers of its early songs was Geoff Bullock (writer of The Power Of Your Love). Bullock was followed by Darlene Zschech who wrote the title track Shout to the Lord and several other songs. More than any other musician /vocalist, Zschech's gifted vocal stylings and leadership charisma made the "Shout To The Lord" album and many of its later successor projects a standard of musical and songwriting excellence. The original "Shout To The Lord" album was released in 1996, but was released again in 1998 with a new cover, as its popularity retained it in print for several years.
While other leaders have come to the Hillsong stable and met the challenge of writing stellar songs with top notch recordings (such as Reuben Morgan and Joel Houston, both of whom have songs in the CCLI top 100), those and other Hillsong writers did so only due to the huge opportunity given to them by the success of "Shout to the Lord" and astounding leadership of Darlene Zschech.
If you are not familiar with this album or its songs, you should learn. This is truly a historic album on which the Hillsong legacy was largely built.
Product Link: Hosanna! Music: Shout To The Lord
Review by Kim Gentes
album, australia, cd, christian, darlene zschech, hillsong, music, praise, review, shout to the lord, worship in Awards, CD Review, Music Review 