Dryvetyme Onlyne

Amy Grant
Greatest Hits
EMI/Sparrow; 2007
Rating: 5.3

UPDATE!! This review has been linked on Amy Grant’s Official Website.

Biases are rather hard to overcome, hard as you might try. Case in point – one of the more difficult aspects of building a career as a writer has been leaving the ranks of “informed music listeners who have opinion about everything” and becoming a member of the “people whose opinions are supposedly worth something” crowd. As much as I’ve grown to love receiving free music from a variety of sources, writing about said music, and hearing the feedback from my editors and the readers of the publications in which my work has been featured, there are times when I want to revel in my fandom. Dare I say there are still times when I wish I could be a drooling, fawning, “this band/singer/artist can do NO wrong” person, even for a few moments. Being able to over-the-top in directing my affections towards an artist is a privilege I have come to miss, though only in small doses.

So, when first presented with the opportunity to obtain an advance copy of the new Amy Grant Greatest Hits album, I jumped at the chance. Yes, my hipster, indie-rock-lovin’ friends – my love for Amy Grant is the guiltiest of my guilty pleasures and I’m not afraid to admit it. And sadly, I was less than impressed with this entire offering – there’s just nothing really special about this album. All of Amy’s hits are here, arranged in reverse chronological order (newest to oldest), and are predominantly influenced by tracks from her House Of Love and Heart In Motion albums (the albums that pushed her into the contemporary pop spotlight). But that’s it – just the songs, no filler, nothing that really reaches out to grab the listener.

You see, “greatest hits” albums have two key mountains to climb in order to make from earliest conception to the release date: 1) all real fans of the artist in question already have all these songs since they own the earlier albums; and 2) casual fans and radio listeners might be over-exposed to the songs, since they live in regular rotation on Christian, pop, and AC stations. Thus, since record labels are attempting to sell records to both the dedicated and casual fans, they have to figure out how market an album of top-selling radio hits without losing the interest of the long-term fans and boring the casual listener. One of the tactics that’s recently come into prominence is the attaching of a DVD of videos to the audio album, since record execs know that hardcore “completists” will be forced to buy the album in order to obtain the DVD. Another approach that’s employed with much greater success (as it receives greater approval from fans) is the inclusion of a second disc full of B-sides, rarities, and remixes, as well as tracks the artist personally loved but never garnered radio play. One method honors the long-term fan, while the other takes their pocketbook for granted – fans love an artist for their songs, not because of the video (whether a live performance or the original accompanying video) for said song.

And that’s where this record goes wrong – it comes only 3 years after Word Records released Amy’s Greatest Hits: 1986-2004 (thus many of the exact same tracks are in both places) and merely includes a DVD of videos, interviews, and such. Where the Word Records release made sense (there was no greatest hits compilation from those years in Amy’s career and it included 2 new songs and 3 remixes), this one seems rather redundant, as if EMI/Sparrow was merely attempting to capitalize on Amy’s recent migration from Word. When an artist has 2 greatest hits albums covering the 2 primary creative periods in their career (and most, if not all, fans will already own both of them), does it make any sense to release one career-spanning retrospective that doesn’t offer anything new at all?

And sadly, Amy will probably bear the brunt of the fans’ frustration here. They already own most, if not all, these songs; yet, since fans want to support the artists the love, they’ll feel obligated to purchase this compilation as well. These are the people who’ve stuck with her through thick and thin. They’re the ones who continued to buy her records and defend her when Christian publications and radio stations hung her out to dry when she started making “non-Christian” records (according to her accusers) and when she went through her divorce from Gary Chapman and subsequent marriage to Vince Gill. As one of these fans, I feel that we deserve a bit better than the standard Amy fare with this release – there’s just no imagination here.

Lest I forget, there are actual songs on this album. As stated earlier, there are 30 years of hits here – “Father’s Eyes,” “El Shaddai,” “Thy Word,” “Find A Way,” “Lead Me On,” “Baby, Baby,” “Every Heartbeat,” “Lucky One,” “Takes A Little Time,” and many others. The songs are fine – Amy’s fans love these songs, which is why they love Amy. But, in the long run, greatest hits albums are all about marketing. There has to be something more, something exciting about the packaging that will really compel both the dedicated and casual fans to flock to the stores to purchase the record. Thus, since all of the Amy classics are here on this disc, would it really have been that different to have put together a second record full of songs beloved by Amy and her fans, though they’re not the typical chart-toppers?

For you see, Mr./Mrs. Record Executive, real true fans love an artist not because of their radio hits (though those are great), but because of the rest of the songs that fill up 30 years’ worth of records. I love Amy not because of “Lead Me On,” “Baby, Baby,” or “Takes A Little Time,” but because of tracks like “Fat Baby,” “1974,” “Faithless Heart,” and “Turn This World Around.” My fandom took a hit with this release, not because I don’t love these songs and Amy, but because I felt that Greatest Hits was too safe, too clean, too sterile, and too easy. I wanted a record that made me happy to be a fan, but I received one that made me happy to return to the slightly jaded confines of “Writer’s World” where I can join my compatriots in our alternately passionate, yet cynical appreciation of music.