Search - Twila Paris :: The Ultimate Collection-Twila Paris

Not quite an ultimate collection

Francis King | Calgary, AB, Canada | 08/26/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Twila Paris is a rarity in the world of Christian pop music: she's a survivor in an industry that disposes of veteran artists, quickly puts their recordings out of print and treats 'em like they never existed. Just think of WhiteHeart as an example (what? Never heard of 'em? Exactly).



For nearly 25 years (yes, it's been that long!) Paris has maintained an excellent level of singing, recording and writing songs praising the Father and this collection reflects it. But while it's the best retrospective available, it's not quite the ultimate collection suggested by the title.



This project rounds up the best of her recordings on the Sparrow and Star Song labels. But, unlike the excellent single-disc 2001 Greatest Hits collection, it does not touch her earliest recordings on the Benson label. That means, for example, you don't get her first big hit, The Warrior is a Child. As for her other early Benson hits (We Will Glorify and We Bow Down) on this collection, they are remakes from her final Sparrow recording, 2003's House of Worship. They're excellent recordings with new and interesting arrangements, but still.....



As well, this package totals 25 songs. But neither disc is filled; there is room for, oh, another five songs. Why did Sparrow -- which did this collection and similar ones of Petra, Michael Card, Steve Green, Phillips Craig and Dean and Keith Green -- come up short? In fact, we only get 8 more tracks than the Greatest Hits album. And why is there nothing from her Integrity label debut, last year's wonderful live-in-concert He Is Exalted?



Like the Petra collection (the only other release in the series that I own), the Twila collection also comes up short in packaging. Lots of nice pictures, but we could have done with a few less in favour of a decent essay examining her career and attempting to explain her longetivity. Good retrospectives, like the ones put out by the Rhino Records label, make this standard practice.



By no means am I disappointed I bought this package. It's still the best thing going when it comes to Twila's career. It just could have been much better."

Great album but missing 'Warrior is a Child'

C. Mazie | Birmingham, AL | 06/24/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"How on earth did they miss "Warrior is a Child?" I understand they may not have gotten permission from the Benson label BUT Starsong did remake it into a piano version in 92 with the "A Heart That Knows You" album. So strange they didn't use that one. That's one of her signature songs! Besides that, the album is a great source of Twila hits. Although in my opinion all of her albums had hit songs except for a few from the Kingdom Seekers album."

Liked it

A. Bouras | Wisconsin, USA | 06/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It was a pretty good CD, some of the songs I didn't care for but some I loved so it kind of evened it out."