It's the ever-growing trend in CCM today. It seems everyone is releasing some sort of a worship project. The over-abundance of them, unfortunately, makes even a stellar worship offering redundant to some degree.

There is really only so much you can do with the worship genre. And, due to the ever-increasing number of worship discs on the CCM shelf, it has all been done before. Worship projects have to be truly innovative at this point to garner any sort of respect. As stated, this is becoming harder and harder to accomplish, because it's all been done before.

Jeremy Camp had to know this as he began preparing for his sophomore effort Carried Me: The Worship Project. The final product ends up being a worship project that sounds a very similar to Camp's debut Stay. Of course, it has the proper worship sound, but a lot of these songs would have easily fit on Stay.

But does Carried Me… stand out among the endless array of worship discs flooding the market? Barely, but it does. And fans of Jeremy Camp will feel right at home on this sophomore effort. His recognizable raw rock sound and deep, Nickleback-style vocals accompany the worship and fit perfectly with what he is trying to accomplish. Jeremy's wife Adrienne Camp (formerly of The Benjamin Gate) even gets into the act on several tracks, adding her lovely voice to the mix on such tracks as "Beautiful One" and "Wonderful Maker," as well as others. Probably Carried Me…'s biggest accomplishment is its ability to instill each track into the head of the listener after only a few listens. Shortly after your first listen, you will find yourself singing along without even realizing it. Any disc that can accomplish this has accomplished something, indeed.

Carried Me: The Worship Project should satisfy Camp's fans, as well as most worship enthusiasts. Nothing truly innovative, but at least it's a step up from the norm. In an age where it is becoming harder and harder to find a worship disc that stands out as stellar, Camp's worship offering is something for worship fans to get excited about, as well as enjoy.

- Review date: 02/8/04, written by Josh Taylor