Steven Curtis Chapman - Speechless

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Free Music Notes for Speechless

Free Music Review: Speechless...continuing a tradition of excellence
Hit: 5 Stars

The album begins with the electronic bleeps that resonate throughout the duration of "Dive," the song Steven performed at this year's Dove Awards and one that has already caused quite a stir. Continuing with the tradition of making the first cut one of the best, Steven really outdoes himself on this one, shifting into high musical gear to create a truly energetic single. The accompanying music video makes good use of the "diving" imagery and is his best to date, replete with Steven in the water splashing around and a host of lights and images edited to maximum effect. The album takes a turn from the more poetic and powerful with "Speechless," the first single released to radio that enjoyed a long stay atop the Adult Contemporary chart. Embodying the essence of the album's theme of astonishment and amazement at God's grace and love, the song is one of Chapman's best power pop efforts to date, right behind "The Great Adventure" and ahead of, in my opinion, "Heaven in the Real World" and "For the Sake of the Call" albeit only slightly. Steven talks about a reminder of what being 'speechless' is all about: "I've got a poster hanging on my wall that was given to me by one of the guys in the group. It's all the Warner Brothers cartoon characters that Mel Blanc did the voices for and they are all standing there with their hands folded and heads bowed and there's a microphone by itself with a spotlight on it. The caption says `Speechless, Mel Blanc' and it gives the date he died. It is on my wall to remind me that I want to be speechless." The song beautifully begins and ends with orchestral sounds, as if to literally suggest human voices cannot do justice to the awe inspired by God, recorded at the history-filled Abbey Road studios in London.

"The Change" pushes the rock limits of Steven's repertoire, featuring an amp-busting bridge and finale. But what is even more significant are the particularly insightful and timely lyrical messages throughout the song. In a rather un-Chapman like fashion, Steven openly questions the value of WWJD type accessories and seems to emphasize the change inside rather than outside:

What about the change What about the difference What about the grace What about forgiveness What about a life that's showing I'm undergoing the change"

The song reminds me of feature article in an issue of CCM Magazine published around a year ago that was titled something like "Jesus Junk." Although it's great to have t-shirts and bumper stickers that proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, the real change must take place within the hearts and lives of committed believers - in other words, if it's not an internal metamorphosis, the externals won't mean a thing.

"Great Expectations" is perhaps one of the better pop offerings in Steven's career and is a lesson in how to do a song right with subtlety and understatement. In again a rather un-Chapman like fashion, the song begins softly with a touch of piano and doesn't even feature a guitar until the bridge. The song sums up rather succinctly our need to expect great things from our Maker and Creator and features a nice downbeat that is infectious to say the least. Sometimes understatement works, sometimes it doesn't. It works extremely well here and is hopefully an indication that Steven will pursue similar sounds in future projects. The fourth song acts as a temporary break in the more upbeat rhythms of "The Change" and "Next Five Minutes," which follows. The song originated from a conversation Steven had with Steve Green and emphasizes the need to live the next five minutes as if they were our very last. If we as Christians approached evangelistic situations with such a mindset, what kind of difference would it make? Musically the song is progressive pop, although the muffled and distorted bass intro led my sister to believe we were listening to the new Delirious album Mezzamorphis and not an album by Steven. If the fact that my ex-roommate sung the chorus repeatedly for an entire weekend soon after his first listen means anything at all, the song is infectious.

"Fingerprints of God" and "The Invitation" complete a first set that rivals any of Steven's in the past, including the first six songs from The Great Adventure, four of which went #1 on the Christian charts. The former is a feel-good ode to Steven's 13-year-old daughter Emily which reaffirms the beauty of a human life, no matter how well that life stacks up in comparison with the covers of Mademoiselle or Redbook. The song expresses in a beautiful and yet non-too-sappy manner the wonder of a human life and of a love a father has for his coming-of-age daughter. According to Sparrow execs, it will be the third song released to radio and is sure to top the charts some time over the fall (let's see if my prediction is right or not!) "The Invitation" is another in a long line of successful Steven ballads and represents the finest of the tradition. Thematically, Steven, along with co-producer Brown Bannister, do a good job of connecting certain common threads throughout songs: for instance, the theme of 'invitation' is present in "Great Expectations" and "The Invitation," the theme of speechless in the title cut and "Be Still and Know," "What I Really Want to Say," etc. "The Invitation" was a song inspired by a Charles Spurgeon book, The Power of Prayer. Steven says, "That we are invited to the great throne room of the universe, this picture of a palace and a King, this great awesome God who has invited us into His presence. To come humbly and realize that we have to be invited into His presence, we can't get there without his invitation. That alone is something that should make us speechless." Couldn't have said it better myself!

The second half of Speechless starts with two rock winners, "Whatever" and "I Do Believe." "Whatever" begins off with some fancy six-string plucking and harkens back to the early days of Steven's career in terms of the verse music. The chorus, however, clearly demonstrates the delightful blend of the new Steven and old Steven at work - new sounds, new grittiness, but same old lyrical poignancy and depth that fans have come to expect and love. The song ends with a lovely tangent into bluegrass elation, with Steven picking the axe with a masterful touch. Once the tangent ends, the listener is greeted to the electronic guitar power of "I Do Believe," whose riffs are very reminiscent of some of the best of Aerosmith and the like (that comparison was originally made in a short blurb by Deborah Evans Price in Billboard, just so credit goes where it deserves!) and features the sort of real life lyrics that have always made Steven accessible to all kinds of genre lovers:

Sitting in a traffic jam 11:52 p.m. Just a few miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio I take my pen and start to write The thoughts that fill my head tonight Nothing terribly profound Just these simple words That keep my heart anchored down That keep my restless heart anchored down

I do, I do, I do, I do believe I know, I know, I know, I know it's true, yeah I do, I do, I do, I do believe Lord, I believe in You I believe in You

"What I Really Want to Say" is a Steven love song, and Steven love songs really never fail to impress (OK, maybe with the exception of "Love and Learn" which really doesn't do a whole lot for me, but perhaps because I'm not married...yet). The song starts slowly but finishes powerfully, complete with a musical bridge extremely similar of the one found in "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls, made popular by the movie City of Angels. Although from what I can tell initial impressions aren't all favorable, I would have to agree with Robert Parrish over @ About.com that this is Steven's best romantic cut since "Go There With You," the second best after the all-time classic "I Will Be Here."

Much of Speechless is about the hope we have in Christ Jesus, even despite all the problems life has to offer. "With Hope," a beautiful song written in memory of three students gunned down at Heath High School (Steven's alma mater) in Paducah, Kentucky (Steven's home town) and in dedication to the daughter of family friends, the Mulligans

Speechless Poster

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