The opening moments of The Gathering, the series' fourth and final entry, show off what City does so well. After a brief prelude, nearly every artist involved in the disc joins together and trades-off vocals on the title track, and it proves to be an instant classic. Written by series creator Steve Hindalong, Derri Daugherty, and City newcomer Andrew Peterson, the song personifies the album's central theme: that we love God best when we love one another well. And the artists sound great joining together and tag-teaming the chorus.

Overall, it's nice to see many of the artists participating also contributing to the songwriting more this time, even though it's resulted in an album that is a little more mellow than prior entries. Despite the City series' reputation for scaled-down acoustic production, it sounds as if no expense was spared this go 'round, with exceedingly rich, warm sounds filling out the disc from start to finish.  We wish it didn't have to go, but The Gathering does allow City on a Hill to go out while it's still in top form.