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Summary: Tell you what I know!!!
Comment: I KNOW your music is fantastic. YOur voice and lyrics are honest and to the heart of us whom struggle with troubles everyday. Keep it up!!!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: One Classic Christian Hit Song, the Rest of the Album? Not so much.
Comment: I'll tell you what I know. Being a fan of Sara Groves and her Christian music is maddening. She has written some of the best, catchiest Christian hit songs of this decade, and a couple of all-time Contemporary Christian Classic Hits (in my opinion), yet she seems intent on trying to be overtly secular and non-religious in most of her songs.
TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW has one (deserves to be) MEGA-HIT of a song, "When the Saints," which has catchy, melodic song hooks, a contemporary sound, and lyrics overflowing with Christian references. The rest of the album does not measure up and is nowhere near as good or as intensely Christian in lyrical content. Most of the Christian references appear in the CD booklet and liner notes, if they appear at all. In essence, buying this CD was worth it, but ONLY because of the single song "When the Saints."
Anymore, Sara spends more time singing about her family, friends, and acquaintances, than about God and Bible references. It is almost like she is a Christian who thinks putting out secular music is a Christian act merely because the artist is a Christian in real life, it just doesn't show up in the songs so much. So what?
Sara first got famous with her incredible tune, "The Word," from her CONVERSATIONS album. That album also had many other tunes about the Christian life, and many, many Bible references in the other songs, as well. Sadly, that was her peak, as far as the Christian aspect goes. She has spent the rest of her career, so far, seemingly trying to be successful with less and less Christian lyrical content in her songs. Conversations
Her next album, ALL RIGHT HERE, also had a big Christian radio hit, "First Song that I Sing," about waking up and praising God, first thing every morning, and it also had a few other good, solid Christian tunes, but the ratio of Christian:Secular lyrical content was more secular than on CONVERSATIONS. All Right Here
The rest of her albums, so far, are lucky to have even a single, good, solid Christian hit song. A couple don't even have a hit song, and most of the lyrical content is vague about Christian lyrical content, and heavy on vagueness, altogether. This song could be about God, or whatever you want it to be about, etc.
On her album THE OTHER SIDE OF SOMETHING, she has a song titled "Esther," but it is not about the Bible's book of Esther, it is about someone she knows personally named Esther. Pretty clever? No. Pretty aggravating! The Other Side of Something
It is as if she really wants to crossover into secular music, and, like many a secular artist, is content to thank God in the liner notes, while offering nothing offensive to the sensibilities of non-believers who need to be tricked into listening to a Christian "hit" song. I can only imagine.
I think it was the comedian Janeane Garofalo who had an old joke about Amy Grant, an established Christian singer who had a 1990's secular hit, "Baby, Baby," and was criticized by Christian listeners for ditching her Christian past for secular success. When she crossed over, she forgot to bring the cross over.
Sara needs to put the Christian aspect back into the lyrics, not just the liner notes, forget about being able to not offend non-believers with overtly Christian lyrics, and do what she does best and what made her famous, writing big, beautiful Christian songs. Fill up the entire album with them. Stop being discreet about Christianity. One great Christian song among an album full of secular tunes does not make a good Christian album. Don't be ashamed of the Gospel.
Anymore, I just buy the latest Sara Groves album IF there is a Christian hit song, then I add it to my own compilation CD of her collected other, decent, spectacular Christian tunes and hits, while shelving the retail, mostly secular sounding CD. She's good for a compilation of great songs culled from many different albums, but she could be SO much better, so much more in the Christian music world.
Many of her song lyrics speak of a crisis of faith, I think she is forgetting her first love while she could be writing better Christian lyrics and hits than nearly anybody else out there, these days.
The more worldly Sara Groves' lyrics become, the less interesting they are for Christian music listeners. She has a great gift for Christian lyrics and songs, but she rarely uses it, anymore.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I Wrote What I Wrote
Comment: Sara Groves has a beautiful voice! And the lyrics are quite amazing! She has a good message - and it is: GOD! This is one of my favorite Christian albums. It's not the best album of all time - but it still much better than "Add to the Beauty". At first I didn't like it so much - only the songs "Love Is Still a Worthy Cause" and "In the Girl There's a Room" seemed to be great. Then, after listening to it 10 times I found almost every song. This is beautiful but quite peaceful music. There's some rock influences - and also country and folk but still, I would say this is a pop album. Sara's voice is brilliant - and the songs like "Honesty" and "It Might Be Hope" are one of the reasons why to keep this album in your collection. She has a sensitive voice.
Stars: Love Is Still a Worthy Cause, In the Girl There's a Room, It Might Be Hope
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Summary: Life Changing C.D.
Comment: This is a life changing c.d. by Sara Groves. Sara goes into uncharted territory, with her lyrics about injustice, pain, strength and conviction. This c.d. is a wake up call to evangelical Christians to truly love as Jesus did---to act on behalf of the helpless and those without a voice. It was a wake up call for me. I have given this c.d. to several friends who have been deeply moved by it.
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Summary: Not what I expected...
Comment: I love Sara Groves. Her lyrics and music usually really speak to me but this album just didn't click with me. I just seemed very different, not as lyrical as her others. Maybe it is just me but I would recommend one of her others like, "The Other Side of Something" over this one.
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