City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia

Just when the recent praise and worship movement threatened to stagnate, City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia provided a gust of fresh air. Like its predecessor, City on a Hill: Songs of Praise and Worship, this collaboration features some fascinating partnerships (with Third Day's Mac Powell and Fernando Ortega; and Bebo Norman; Caedmon's Call; and others) that yield pleasant results. Elsewhere, artists like Jars of Clay add traditional grace to the lustrous and rich possibilities of modern Christian music, polishing up the late-19th-century hymn "The Comforter Has Come." Coproducers Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd wisely bookend Sing Alleluia with the century-old standard "All Creatures of Our God and King," a fitting irony for a record that exemplifies what worship music can be when artists stop worrying about what it should be. --Michael Lyttle