Avalon, one of Christian music's most popular groups in the Adult Contemporary genre, has been around for nearly twelve years. That isn't to say there haven't been many lineup changes. In fact, newest member Jeromi Richardson, makes his debut here. Just five years ago, however, Avalon released another hits project, Testify To Love: The Best of Avalon, which makes this album much less valuable. And although Avalon has released four studio albums since then (The Creed, Stand, Faith: A Hymns Collection, & Another Time, Another Place: Timeless Christian Classics), none of them have garnered nearly as much success as any of their previous offerings.

Eleven of the sixteen songs on this album were also on Testify To Love. Since Avalon already had that 15-track hits album (and even those weren't all of their "hits"), it would have been much better to just put out a double-disc hits album, since the group has actually had a total of 20 number-one singles in their entire career. Yet, songs like "All," which barely cracked the top 10 and "In Christ Alone," which didn't even make it that far, are present here. In fact, the highest charting song since the Testify... album is "You Were There," which only peaked at #2 on the Inspo chart.

This collection isn't a complete waste, though. The inclusion of a brand new single, "Still My God," was a smart choice. Although the song sounds like any of the standard Avalon ballads we've heard on every one of their albums, it's very catchy and radio friendly. Though not particularly unique, this song reminds fans of why we fell in love with Avalon in the first place. However, for fans who don't want to pick up an album of songs they already own, it would be a good idea to purchase this song through iTunes or another digital media outlet instead.

The inclusion of the four newer songs makes the hits album feel more updated, as does the lone brand new song, but another greatest hits album from CCM's primary supergroup Avalon just wasn't needed. Although the reason for the record was to close their deal with Sparrow Records, it would have been a better idea to create a double-disc collection including all of their big hits and not just expect fans to double-dip.

- Review date: 8/31/09, written by Matthew Watson of Jesusfreakhideout.com