CD/DVD - Greatest Hits Special Edition (A-)

Artist: Amy Grant
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This compilation was not exactly necessary. Grant's last greatest hits album came out only three years ago. It's primary purpose is as a sampler of the brighter sound of her recently recently reissued, newly remastered back catalog. There are two different versions of this set running around: A straightforward CD version and a CD/DVD Special Edition. This review is of the latter.

I am an Amy completist, so I already own every song and music video on this special edition set. It's difficult for me to judge the strength of the track selection because even though I love them all, there are dozens of favorite songs that aren't on it. That's just going to happen when trying to boil 30 years and 20-odd albums down into 19 songs.

I will say to the new or casual fan who is looking for a greatest hits CD to start their AG collection that this is a pretty good place to start. Her first compilation, The Collection was a good, relatively deep summation of Amy's purely Contemporary Christian period and is a great choice for those who want to focus solely on that era. Greatest Hits 1986-2004 covers her crossover and pop hit periods fairly well.

This CD is an extremely broad sampling of both eras but skews to the lite pop - with better remastered sound quality for current systems. The mix of cheery 70s-style acoustics and string sections with 80s synthesizers and 90s adult pop can be a bit jarring but it's all part of Amy's growth over the decades. My only real gripe is the underrepresentation of her introspective and gut-wrenchingly honest work from Lead Me On and Behind the Eyes, which may be regarded by posterity as her two best albums.

The greatest benefit (for new Amy fans and old) of this 2-disc Special Edition - in my humble opinion - is the nearly half hour of interview footage she provides (Preview). Just sitting on the couch with a mug of coffee, reminiscing and vividly describing the hows and whys of the peaks and valleys of her recording career and her life, Amy demonstrates exactly why she has touched audiences and made devoted fans for three decades. It's nearly impossible not to like such an earthy, gentle person who is openly alloyed with the wonderment and messiness of real life. She's like an ideal next door neighbor that you'd love to sit around and discuss life, love, and faith with. And in some ways we already have because it's all there in her songs.