It might be a "Personal" Effort, but not a good Amy effort

Amy Grant's 1991 release "Heart in Motion" proved to be a blockbuster. Amy had already established herself as one of the all-time great Christian Contemporary artists and now was beginning to make a splash on the Pop Scene. Amy was able to do things her way - without the use of vulgarity or sexually explicit themes. While "Heart in Motion" was a pop album, there still was a Christian Contemporary influence on things. Amy's follow-up would be 1994's "House of Love". This release continued down the Pop music path (and also had a Christian Contemporary influence), but did things a little differenty: "Heart in Motion" would focus on a variety of things while "House of Love" focused on the theme of love. Despite the fact "House of Love" still sold well, "it just wasn't as good a collection as "Heart in Motion". By the time 1997 rolled around, I was looking toward Amy's next release "Behind the Eyes" to be sort of a bounce-back album. Unfortunately, I would be sadly disappointed in this effort.



I can look at Amy Grant's career as encompassing three main phases. The first phase covers 1977 through 1981 (her debut self-title album "Amy Grant" through the "In Concert Volume 2"). In this phase, Amy definitely showed her youthful side (her first album was released while she still was in high school). For the most part, Amy did some nice songs and was able to establish herself as a Contemporary Christian Artist. In Phase 2 (this would cover 1982-1988, starting with "Age to Age" and going to this album "Amy Grant - The Collection"), Amy ascended to legendary status in the Contemporary Christian music-world both commercially and criticially. This is where her husband to be Gary Chapman would begin to have an influence in her music. In this phase, Amy would show the most depth with her Christian music. When Phase 3 (1988 to present, starting with "Lead Me On" to present), Amy went into her full-fledged crossover into the mainstream (pop) music arena. "Behind the Eyes" is perhaps the most startling example of Amy's crossover. Overall, I would safely say that this is a Pop album and has little to no Christian Contemporary influences.



There are three factors that play into "Behind the Eyes". These factors are all key into my assessment of this collection:



First, it is well documented that the release of this album coincided with the breakup of Amy's marriage to Gary Chapman. Therefore Amy's struggles with dealing with this breakup became the theme of this album. In a lot of ways, it is almost the polar opposite of "Heart in Motion". In general, despair is a theme of this album. Although much of the despair is Amy's personal despair, you will hear the theme of despair in a song like "Nobody Home" which approaches the theme "Main Street USA boarded up and dry.."



Second, the Pop music scene had undergone a major metamorphosis in the 1990s. Synth Pop was now being replaced by more guitar-laden natural sounds. While Amy's previous works through "House of Love" did have a guitar presence, the foundation of much of these works could still be considered Synth Pop/Synth Christian Contemporary. "Behind the Eyes" represents puts the guitar as the focal point. You'll hear a lot more guitar than in recent releases - especially on the acoustic side. You'll also hear some country music influences such as on "Take a Little Time" and "Curious Thing".



The final factor is the songwriting and producing. From a songwriting standpoint, a staple throughout Amy's career is that she does some of the songwriting (either solo or collaborative) as well as uses songs by other songwriters. "Behind the Eyes" stays consistent with this as Amy collaborates with several songwriters as well as uses third party songs. Longtime Collaborators Wayne Kirkpatrick, Keith Thomas, and Tommy Sims are back. Amy co-writes 10 of the songs while the remaining two are third party. I would have expected a better sounding album with these talented songwriters, but possibly the missing element is that longtime producer Brown Bannister is not on this collection. Bannister was a secondary producer on "Heart in Motion", but was brought back as the primary one on "House of Love". I felt Bannister was always out of his element working with Amy on mainstream music, but at the same time he always knew how to get the best out of Amy.



I think what it comes down to is this. Just because Amy Grant decided to make a very personal album - with a new style doesn't automatically make this a great album. While I give Amy credit for the new directions and making a very personal story, the end product just isn't that good. There are some songs that still are very good. Songs such as "Nobody Home", "Like I Love You", and "Curious Thing" are the better tunes. The "hit single" released "Takes a Little Time" is an average song. The remainder of the album I found very boring and I had a tough time on getting into it.



"Nobody Home" deals with the changes that happen to one's hometown Smalltown, USA. It's not a Grant penned tune, but I enjoy it. "Like I Love You" is the one personal song on this collection that does grab me. It seems very emotional, but it also is a very good song. "Curious Thing" is a very well written song with a cross of country and folk. It deals with how people change and provides examples of different people.



The liner notes do contain all of the lyrics, songwriting credits, and production credits. Amy puts a thank you on the album that gives a little perspective on why she made this album. Overall, I think this album was a real disappointment. While many Amy Grant albums I find myself playing over and over again, this is the one album that tends to sit in my CD rack the longest.

Straight from Amy's Heart to Mine

In this cd, Amy reveals some of her deepest, sadest, most human feelings and weaknesses. Behind the Eyes let's the listener know "you are not alone in feeling this way." Everyone has their up times and their down times and it takes a truly amazing artist to share the down times so openly with her audience. That is exactly what Amy Grant does, she shares her life through song with her audience. She has done it for over 27 years now. For years Lead Me On was my favorite Amy Grant cd, but then Behind the Eyes came along and knocked Lead Me On into second place. I have all of Amy's albums including the 2002 Legacy and the 2003 Simple Things. I enjoy them all, but Behind the Eyes will always hold a special place in my heart, just like Lead Me On does.

This album has a more acoustic, rock, raw sound that House of Love or Heart In Motion, which shows Amy's style has a wide range. The song writing on this cd is frank, real, honest, and yes sometimes painful, yet still hopeful. Behind the Eyes can be summed up in one word: bittersweet. The journey of life is often bittersweet over the years and that is exactly what this cd collection shows. The tracks Turn this World Around and The Felling I Had are favorites of mine. They are so honest. I hope God blesses you with this album as he has me.

The human side of Amy Grant

This is a different but good cd. I belleve that CCM intially called it "the real unguarded" or something to that effect. This is way more real and "Unguarded" than the cd she that held that same name. On Behind the Eyes, you can see the human side of Amy in her songs and lyrics.