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Better Than a Hallelujah Music Video World TV Premiere on GMC
Saturday July 31, 2010
Amy Grant Releases ‘She Colors My Day’ EP on iTunes
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Christmas with Amy and Vince 2008 Edition
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Amy Grant: Looking Back, The Interview Podcast
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Out With the Old
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Amy Grant In Concert, Volume 2 (1981)
Somewhere Down the Road (2010)
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If you liked Simple Things, a pop-oriented, general market studio album that was a long time in coming since her last studio effort Behind the Eyes, then you were a veteran Amy Grant fan. Simple Things is a comfortable, laid-back collection of songs for the older crowd who grew up on her music and have now settled into a mellower groove. By this time in her career, Amy had pretty much accomplished everything she wanted commercially and now was the time to kick back and release a set of tracks as casual as a familiar pair of used jeans.
At the height of her career starting in the mid-eighties and culminating in the late nineties with Heart In Motion, Amy’s audience was mostly made up of very young girls aspiring to be just like her and it didn’t hurt that the music was very youth-oriented. Now that they’ve grown up, it’s likely assumed that they’re still fans, albeit more mature and laid back. And so it is with this latest compilation of likable, if not spectacular songs.
Personally, this was a tough album to get enthusiastic about. Unlike Heart In Motion’s lightning-quick appeal, her later works took some getting used to like cold pool water that you’re afraid to dive into right away. Simple Things continues the gradual deceleration of Amy’s style from pop-rock to adult contemporary-folk-acoustic. There is a certain hearkening back to the mellow, radio-friendly styling of seventies adult easy-listening pop on this album with nary a stand-out track among the bunch. It takes a few patient spins to really dig deeply and unearth some of the coarse gems buried within. A personal favorite would be Eye To Eye, a deceptively, rhythmically complex piece that borrows some eighties-style urgency in its catchy melodic turns and punctuated passages.
The very simple and unadorned After the Fire is classic Amy with a focus on beautiful lyrics spread over an infectious melody and supported by her archetypical guitar playling that brings the listener back to her humble beginnings as a singer-songwriter.
Other selections on this album require a few listens before they dig into your psyche, but they’ll not likely have the same impact as her earlier works that more successfully combine the best of both worlds in music: lyrical relevance and musical appeal. This collection slips a bit below the very high bar she set for herself, but it’s a well-deserved, quiet stroll on the path where she has for the most part run so fast and hard over a remarkably successful career.
Track listing
Happy
Eye To Eye
Simple Things
Beautiful
Out In The Open
I Don’t Know Why
Looking For You
Touch
Innocence Lost
After The Fire
