Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Some fun songs celebrating the love between SCC and his
wife
Cons: Theme gets repetitive, not much for singles
The Bottom Line:
"It's all about love"
But that gets repetitive
So it's not his best
Steven Loves Marybeth. Let Him Sing About it for You
Steven Curtis Chapman has written and recorded many love
songs for his wife over the years. He
devoted all of All About Love to those songs, but this isn’t a collection of
greatest hits. Instead, it’s mostly new
material that celebrates romance.
Two of the songs are about more generic love. “All About Love” starts us off with an upbeat
pop/rocker that talks about the importance of love in our lives. Near the end of the disc is “Moment Made for
Worshipping,” which reminds us that ordinary acts of love are acts of
worshipping God. This song feels shoe
horned into the disc and could easily have fit on any of Steven’s releases.
Steven wrote most of the rest of the songs and he or
Marybeth commented on each song in the notes, so you really do get a picture of
the love in their marriage. For example,
they freely admit they are opposites, which is the subject of “Your Side of the
World” and “We Belong Together (Tarzan and Jane).” Steven gets a bit whimsical with “11-6-64,”
which celebrates his wife’s birthday.
“You’ve Got Me” is a song of commitment while “Echoes of Eden” picture
marital happiness as a glimpse of the true joy of Heaven and “We Will Dance”
looks at their marriage as the constant in a changing world.
Stylistically, this disc fits with Steven’s standard guitar
based pop/rock style. The upbeat tracks
and slower ballads are pretty evenly balanced and provide enough difference to
keep my ear musically. It helps that a
few songs focus on piano.
There are four non-original songs. The strangest of which is “When Love Takes
You In.” This song about adoption
doesn’t really seem to fit and is the exact same track from Declaration, which
was Steven’s most recent release at the time.
Not surprisingly, Steven covers his wedding classic “I Will be Here,”
trading guitar for piano and upping the strings. While the original is a classic, this version
is beautiful, too.
Steven covers two songs by other artists that are special to
him and Marybeth. Up first is the
Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).”
While his version isn’t quite the hard rock of the original, it’s still
the rockiest track here. Then there’s
the 80’s jazz of “I’ll Take Care of You,” recorded first by Ronnie Milsap.
I’m a huge Steven fan, but I find myself torn on this
disc. Maybe it’s because I’m single, but
I don’t connect to these songs. I
appreciate the honesty and his commitment to his marriage, but I rarely pull
this one out to listen to.
Couple that with the fact that there are 16 tracks in total
here. While I appreciate getting over an
hour of music, the subject becomes repetitive lyrically no matter how much
musical variety is present.
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