- Creation Overture / Apollo 8
- The Story of Light - Mark Harris
- Back to the Beginning - Billy Sprague
- This Is My Father's World - Allen Asbury
- It Was Good - Cindy Morgan
- Beautiful to Me - Larnelle Harris
- The One Thing You Would Need - Andy Chrisman
- Who I Am to You - Greg Long
- The Eden of My Heart - Bob Carlisle
- What a Wonderful World - Lisa Bevill
- Creation Finale
A multi-artist compilation in the spirit of
Some might unfairly say this seems like the soundtrack to some planetarium or IMAX theater presentation, but the strings provide a stunning introduction and add weight to the album overall. Perfect example: The overture transitions into "The Story of Light," a beautifully arranged pop song sung by Mark Harris of 4Him. Much grander and more captivating than the typical AC pop, it glorifies God and the plans he made before the dawn of time: "The sun and the moon and the stars took their place/As if God was giving creation a taste of what was to come on a Bethlehem night."
Next up is an upbeat song called "Back to the Beginning" from Billy Sprague, a veteran artist we haven't heard from in years. In it, he longs for the perfect relationship that Adam and Eve originally enjoyed with the Lord in the Garden. Though it sounds a little dated, it's not bad, recalling the likes of Phil Keaggy and Sting. Following is an orchestrated pop rendition of "This Is My Father's World" sung by Allen Asbury. A good performance with a vitalized arrangement, but it might have been nice to change gears and offer something more subtle and sweeping, rather than this contemporary AC version. Then the always skillful Cindy Morgan paints a detailed picture of God's love manifested through the intricacies of creation with "It Was Good," singing, "In the space between the waters, the dark gave way to light/The mountains rose from nothing, there was day and there was night/The stars spilled out like diamonds, one by one he turned them on/Scratched the line of the horizon, rose the moon and hung the sun."
Up to this point,
Which brings us to "The Eden of My Heart," sweetly sung by Bob Carlisle as a romantic power ballad about a failed relationship—in this case, the one between Adam and God. The orchestration matched with Carlisle's softer vocal give the song extra poignancy, but it steers the album in an awkward direction with the subject of sin separation. It feels like there should be a darker song about the fall of man, as well as another that glimpses the cross and mankind's redemption. Instead, Lisa Bevill rounds things out with a contemporized cover of "What a Wonderful World," followed by a gentle instrumental finale that represents the seventh day of rest.
Mixing some excellent tracks with fair ones only yields a good recording, but despite its shortcomings,