Doug Horley

Item: King of Heaven
Author: James Stewart

King of Heaven

(1998)

Reviewed by James Stewart

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Spotify

Label Kingsway MusicThe Phantom Tollbooth1998

ccm worship

Whether he likes it or not, Doug Horley (Duggie Dug Dug to the kids he works with) will probably be remembered for his anthemic "We Want to See Jesus Lifted High," which swept across UK churches and was adopted as the 1997 "March for Jesus" song. I prefer to remember him for his guitar playing, which is excellent. The majority of Doug's work is with children, leading groups at bible weeks and conferences and running praise parties across the country. This album, his third, is definitely aimed at that audience.

With that in mind I decided that I should enlist some help with this review, and called in my sister (aged 10):

"I prefer this to his last album, We Want to See Jesus Lifted High, especially the new version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." It is different to his other two albums, more polished, but I like all the songs. They seem to be better for listening to, but not so good for actions."

The album does seem to be more polished, but at points I'm not sure that I like that as much--for example, the first track ("Have We Made Our God Too Small") has a drum machine beat that sounds overly synthesised. There are quite a number of styles used, and some are more successful than others, but as children's albums go, this is good and should be a hit with those of the right target group.