Amy Grant

Item: Behind The Eyes
Author: Linda T. Stonehocker

Behind The Eyes

(1997)

Reviewed by Linda T. Stonehocker

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Spotify YouTube Music

Label MyrrhThe Phantom Tollbooth1997

adult contemporary folk rock pop

"Nobody Home" starts off superstar Amy Grant's latest CD promisingly using an empty downtown retail community to depict a sense of abandonment. The title and chorus, "You can knock all you want; but ain't nobody home," sets the tone for the album--vague longing and regret for lost friendships and unfulfilled relationships interspersed with a few rays of hope.

The project sounds great. The blend of acoustic, electric, and pedal steel guitars supported by Hammond B-3 organ creates a contemporary college rock atmosphere, although Grant's pop origins are always evident.

In interviews, Grant claims to be more honest, to have shared more of herself on Behind The Eyes. This authenticity doesn't always ring true, however. "Curious Thing" is a light-hearted first person look at sudden stardom written from the bottom of the heap. Was she really in line at a grocery store recently buying the family's staple meal, beans and rice, when she spotted a friend from school on the cover of a magazine?

The melody of "Cry A River" is memorable, but the lyrics are disturbing. Grant and her husband, Gary Chapman, have been candid about solving past marital problems, but to write that "Who knew love would come walking through my door," that, "It was just the wrong time," that, "some things you live with; and you never let it show," seem to commemorate rather than flee temptation.

Grant is also vague about spiritual matters. The strongest spiritual statement is perhaps in the concluding song, "Somewhere Down the Road," where she declares, "You will find mighty arms reaching for you, and they will hold the answers at the end of the road." But in a post-Christian society, those arms could belong to anyone.

Despite such quibbles, this project is a decent beginning at mature expression. I'm not ready to write-off Amy Grant, providing she understands, as she sings on "Every Road," that, "Every road that's narrow pushes us to choose," and she continues to demonstrate an interest in choosing the difficult road that leads to artistic integrity.

2.5 tocks