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Every now and then, we'll bring you a wrap-up of music DVDs that come through our offices. Here, four of our reviewers deliver the good, the bad and the bottom line on a dozen discs from the latter part of '04.

The Good:
The concert features worship leader Gary Anglin, backed by the Voices of CCC, the choir from the Christian Cultural Center in New York. The concert is visually and aurally superb, with highlights including "Give Him All the Praise," "Enter In," "Hallelujah" and "Father We Worship You." Excellent camera work gives the full sense of activity throughout the concert and tastefully uses pan and fade techniques to accentuate rather than distract from the worship experience. The DVD also includes interviews with Anglin and other songwriters and producers.

The Bad:
Extras include lots of promotion for the Christian Cultural Center, home to the group and the label that produced the CD. Unfortunately, most of these extras have very loose connections to the actual concert or viewer interests. Examples: a series of photos of Anglin with various celebrities; vignettes of celebrities talking about the church; a PSA featuring Anglin and a 15-minute sermonette followed by a cheesy ad.

The Bottom Line:
The concert portion of the DVD is exceptional. However, the quality of the overall production is marred by too many unnecessary extras.
— LT

The Good:
Delirious, the renowned UK rock-worship band, joins Australia's famed praise team (led by Darlene Zschech) and over 20,000 worshippers down under for Hillsong Conference in July 2003. Both groups offer their usual passion and excellence performing some of their latest, best-loved material. It's a grand scale 90-minute video production with great camera work that captures what's on stage as well as the scope of the Sydney SuperDome. Worship concerts don't get much bigger and livelier than this. Plus, there are two extra songs not on the related CD—"More Than Life" and "My Glorious."

The Bad:
Unfortunately, this isn't as unified an event as you'd hope—think of it as Hillsong opening/hosting for Delirious. Collaboration between the two is minimal, and neither noticeably adds to the other. Example: Hillsong's choir is indistinguishable from the arena audience. Video production shifts to a music video style for some of Delirious' set, inconsistent with the rest of the DVD. Extras are scarce with only an 8-minute behind-the-scenes documentary. The impressively large scale of the event would have benefited from a multi-angle option.

The Bottom Line:
UP isn't different enough from past Hillsong and Delirious live worship albums to warrant strong recommendation, though some may appreciate it as a 2-for-1-concert deal.
— RB

The Good:
Full disclosure: I attended this recording as a guest of Israel and New Breed. So I can't decide which is better: having been there, or having the DVD to watch whenever I want. Y'all, it was crazy—the type of concert where you kick off your church shoes early, 'cause you know you'll be standing all night. And jumping, clapping, dancing and singing. The top-quality, high-energy performance is captured from start to finish through frenetic, zooming cinematography that takes the viewer from Houghton to background vocalists to band members to audience, often within a few seconds. Songs include hits from New Season, Real and Live From Another Level, and the DVD features guests Joseph Garlington and Martha Munizzi. Extras include backstage footage from before and after the concert, personnel intros and a "drum cam."

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