Jennifer Knapp has been one of the leading artists in the Christian Music industry for some time now, since debuting in 1998 with the rootsy, folk-driven rock album Kansas. The collection is a limited edition double disc set, the first disc featuring a selection of her best tracks from across her previous albums, with the second disc packed full of duets, demos and previously unreleased material.
The process used to choose the tracks for the album was simple, during the summer of 2003 fans were asked to vote for their three favourite tracks from each of the previous releases, and then the top 15 were chosen to make up the track list for disc one. Fans were also given the chance to submit testimonies about their favourite songs, and some of these make up the inlay card, which is an interesting and original alternative to the usual habit of using song lyrics. The disc kicks off with ‘A little More’, perhaps her most highly acclaimed song, and the one which gained the most fan votes. It is a inspiring song, starting off with a slow acoustic verse, with Knapp’s vocals floating over the mellow guitar, as the song goes on it builds into a classic, with a really motivating chorus. Also standing out in this collection of good songs is ‘Into You’ a rocky song with a really great message through out about getting to know God more, it is nice to read in one of the testimonies about this song that it was hearing it that brought the girl in question to salvation. It is difficult when reviewing a disc of this quality to choose songs that stand out, as every song you listen to seems to create that impression. We get to hear ‘Undo Me’ the song which really broke Jennifer into the market place all that time ago, or we have ‘Lay it down’ another inspiring song from her sophomore release. Or how about ‘By and By’ or the ever-popular ‘Romans’? In short it is full of all of the classic Knapp songs.
However, if you do own all of the albums to date, don’t think that this album is not for you. Disc two is bound to be a big success with the fans, Featuring a good selection of choice cuts, duets, demos, it’s all on there, fifteen more tracks. ‘Say won’t you say’ the duet with Michael Tait works really well, originally recorded for a movie, the movie fell through and this is the first time it has featured anywhere. Jennifer’s contributions to the ‘City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia’ project are featured. Along with demos from the first three albums, including ‘Undo Me’, ‘Martyrs and Thieves’, ‘Into you’ and several more that never made the albums and appear here in their raw home recorded format.
All in all this is a top album, and one that no Jennifer Knapp fan will want to be without, fans of secular artists such as Alanis Morrisette will also enjoy this, and with 30 tracks, it is also great value. Go buy it, you know you want to!
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