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 Wednesday, August 21, 2002 at 10:05PM 
Vineyard Music has done it right! Instead of putting out just another endless collection series, they sat down and looked at the seasons of grace that God has given their music and went about capturing those time frames of gifted songwriting into 4 concise double CD editions entitled "25 Top Vineyard Worship Songs". Each edition contains the top 25 songs from that era of Vineyard music (along with a few bonus tracks on each edition). Each edition also has a complete companion songbook available. Personally, as I browse and listen to songs on these discs, I am amazed at how many great songs merged from the Vineyard. Even just looking over the first era (Season of Glory) you find I Believe In Jesus, Change My Heart oh God, Isn't He, Spirit Song, More Love More Power, and so many more absolutely amazing songs-- a breathtaking tribute to what this music company has contributed to the Body of Christ. And each collection has an equally awesome set of fresh songs God breathed, not just into the Vineyard movement, but through the entire Church worldwide. If you want to get caught up with an excellent history of life changing songs, haven't heard of Vineyard music, or just want a truly great collection of songs you know, you should really get this entire collection. Normally, I am fairly disinterested in yet another collection series, but this totally takes another place. Not only is this collection amazing in song quality, but Vineyard has made it an actual worship resource to the Body of Christ by publishing companion songbooks with piano/vocal/guitar arrangements (guitar chord charts included). Finally, they were thoughtful enough to make the CDs themselves enhanced and to include printable guitar charts, overhead masters and song stories.
Product Links: The 25 Top Vineyard Series is divided chronologically into a collection of recordings representing various eras of Vineyard worship.
| Draw Me Close (Songbook)
Change My Heart Oh God (Songbook)
| Refiner's Fire (Songbook)
| The River Is Here (Songbook)
Come Now Is The Time To Worship (Songbook)
Kim Gentes
