Drawn from favorite selections previously performed at Sunday morning worship service, High and Lifted Up is the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir's first studio album in more than a decade. Akin to the Brooklyn Tabernacle singers' Songs from the Altar, this is an elegantly scored collection that remains firmly focused on the choir's trademark praise and worship bent. However, while it begins with the relatively uncomplicated "Total Praise," High and Lifted Up, unlike Songs, is lyrically complex, including the words of Psalm 150 and "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Skillfully executed multipart harmonies and swelling strains of strings make the title cut, the Celtic-tinged "Father We Adore Thee," and closer "God of All Gods" crowning achievements. --Paige La Grone