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Amy Grant -
Greatest Hits 1986-2004 (A & M Records)
Released: October, 2004
My sister-in-law says she
believes that Amy Grant's pop hits contain religious messages via backward
masking (think "Paul is dead"). I think she's kidding.
I think it's just her way of saying she's not crazy about Amy Grant, or
Mariah Carey, or anything that might get played on a radio station that
calls itself "Light," or "Lite."
I, on the other hand, am of the
Rate-A-Record school. "Good beat, easy to dance to, Dick. I give it a 94."
I like mainstream pop.
The essential question with any "Greatest Hits" collection is -
does this disc represent
more than just the good stuff in one pile? I think the answer here
is "yes."
If you're new to Ms. Grant's music, it's all here. The early religious
stuff, the shift to pop - tentatively, in "Next Time I Fall," with Peter
Cetera - then full force with the seminal (I think in anyone's book)
"House Of Love" in 1991. And the more recent religious
stuff, which is less in-your-face, in my opinion.
This issue includes some bonus cuts - a previously-unreleased "The Water,"
a nicely-done story about healing, and yep, Jesus is in there.
My favorite is the secular duet with Memphis blues guy Keb' Mo' - "Come Be With
Me."
Now, that - you can have for 99 cents at iTunes, or the like. The remixes
- I can take or leave. Sometimes, remixes are interesting, but they're
almost never better than the original. The remix of "Baby Baby" is
particularly unappealing to me.
But none of this two-disc set is crap. It deserves a place in the
collection.
I'm really starting to like Ms. Grant's newer stuff. She has always seemed
comfortable with her Christianity and her life; her newer recordings are
showing a comfort with her music. It's always been good, but it's always
seemed that she was working hard at it. Her later recordings - "Come Be
With Me," on this disc, and many from the "Simple Things" disc reveal a
mastery not only of pop, or Contemporary Christian - but of a wide variety
of other styles, too.
In short, her music has always
been good. Now it's getting fun.
This is a well-done disc. It's not the first "Best of" disc of Amy Grant's
career.
I'm looking forward to the next one in a few years. I think it'll be the
best.
 Three microphones (out of four)
- Doug Boynton
(04/02/05) |
