Customer Reviews

House of Love

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Like most secular listeners, I first became a big fan of Amy Grant around the time Heart in Motion came out. My aunt had been a fan since her very early days as a purely Christian singer. From the instant I heard "Baby Baby," it just grabbed me, and I wore out my cassette tape of Heart In Motion. When I heard that Amy was coming out with another "pop" album in the fall of 1994, I knew I had to have it. I didn't like as much as H.I.M., but I still felt it was a good effort and a worthy follow-up, even if it only sold half of what H.I.M. did. Here's my track-by-track commentary...
1. Lucky One - sweet and lighthearted ballad, good first single. However, I like the "AC Rhythm Mix" that got radio airplay much better than the album version. Charted at #18.
2. Say You'll Be Mine - more uptempo than Lucky One but still very AC-friendly, a lot like "Every Heartbeat" or "Good For Me." I think it would have done well as a single in the U.S., which it wasn't (although it did just miss the top 40 in the U.K.).
3. Whatever It Takes - this is the one song on the album that I didn't really care for. Sweet, nice sentiment, but not nearly as catchy as the first two tracks.
4. House Of Love - charted at #37 as a single. Great song, very inspirational and well-sung, and in a way prophetic considering that Grant and Gill would marry only five years later.
5. The Power - I like this one, very gospelly and danceable yet quiet at the same time. This song has been covered by Cher (on her "Believe" album), but as much as I love Cher, Amy's version is better.
6. Oh How The Years Go By - this song has also been covered (by Vanessa Williams, whose version was an Adult Contemporary hit). And Vanessa's version doesn't hold a candle to Amy's. Beautiful song, great lyrics and an easily relatable sentiment.
7. Big Yellow Taxi - nice cover version, not as good as Joni Mitchell's original but still faithful. There was a radio remix, but the album version is truer to the original, and Amy has said she's a big Joni Mitchell fan. Certainly much better than that GODAWFUL version by Counting Crows that was a hit recently. Charted at #67.
8. Helping Hand - an uptempo, poppy piece about reaching out to help others in need. I didn't like it much at first, but it's grown on me. This song got a lot of contemporary Christian radio play at the time, and I still hear it occasionally on the radio.
9. and 10. Love Has A Hold On Me and Our Love - slow, beautiful ballads, remind me a lot of How Can We See That Far from Heart In Motion. Our Love could even be called sensual and would be a good make-out song without being tawdry or raunchy at all.
11. Children of the World - the only song on this album that explicitly mentions God, and in my opinion, the best song on this album. Rollicking, beautiful, and very moving, with backing by the same children's choir that sang with her on "The Night Before Christmas" on the "Home for Christmas" album.

All in all, a good, solid follow-up album to Heart In Motion and one that reinforced Amy's position as a staple of adult contemporary radio (less so top 40 stations).

As I have wrote in my previous reviews on Amy's other cds I have all of her albums and a few singles. This is one I can listen to all of the time and never get tired of it. I have so many cds though, so I take turns listening to them.. My all-time favorite is Heart In Motion. Anyways, the best songs on this album are: Lucky One (I have the single of this one), Say You'll Be Mine, House Of Love (with Vince Gill), The Power (this is truly one of my favorites), Love Has A Hold On Me (I have this single, too), Children Of The World, Big Yellow Taxi, & Helping Hand. This a great album for collectors.

Amy Grant went from Christian to pop in 1991 by releasing Heart in Motion and placing the single "Baby Baby" at the top of the charts. This album is an even better followup; it has its share of catchy pop tunes, such as "Lucky One" and "Say You'll Be Mine," and covers ("House of Love" and "Big Yellow Taxi") mixed with more meaningful tracks that pepper the rest of the album, the very reason to go out and buy this album (or any other Amy Grant album for that matter). Listen to the songs such as "Power," "Love Has a Hold on Me" and "Children of the World" - the lyrics have a very inspirational feel that brings Amy's Christian background in a more secular package. The musical arrangments for these songs are just as superb. The catchy pop tunes are a letdown by comparison (particularly "Say You'll Be Mine" which was a single in the UK), and the covers come in between. But these don't detract from the overall charm and listenability of the entire album; this album was at the top of my playlist for much of the mid-1990's.

This album is simply a huge dose of inspiration without in-your-face proselytization; while the fundamentalists will balk (along with Amy's very shift to secular music as well as divorce/remarriage), for everyone else this album represents a win-win. Just because Amy Grant happens to have a religous background and does not have the clout of the big-name divas does not mean you should overlook this album. This album is too good to be overlooked. This is *the* secular Amy album to buy, especially since I consider it better than Heart in Motion as well as Amy's latest effort, Behind His Eyes.

I love this cd. I even have the video "Making the House of Love." Amy follows up "Heart in Motion" with her second pop album in excellent fashion. The songs are fun, upbeat, romantic, and danceable. This cd appeals to both young and old. The title track, Oh How the Years Go By, and Children of the World are my favorite songs on this cd. Amy and Vince do an incredible job on the duet "House of Love" and now they truly share a house of love in their personal life. Even though this is mostly a fun pop album, don't discount the power of the lyrics. Amy has some emotionally packed songs towards the second half of the cd.

I remember i bought this album way back in 1995 and had been my favorite. Recently one of my Japanese friend recomended me a Japanese album Jupiter the song is "Everyday i listen to my heart" and the song blew me away and reminded me of Amy Grant's "Children of the World". Since we share similar taste in music. If you like Amy grant then you will certainly like the Japanese album Jupiter too. The "House of love" by Amy Grant is one of the the best album. I have listened to this album so many times and still haven't got over it. "Lucky one", "Big Yellow Taxi" "Power" all are just sublime. Get hold of this album fast. Its truly awesome.

Amy Grant's House Of Love album is a winner! It showcases softer pop tunes comparing it to her Heart In Motion album, but to sum it up, it's a dreamy yet upbeat album. The album starts off with Lucky One with a flute, crickets in the grass and a steady "Baby Baby" like beat. There is also the songs, Whatever It Takes and Love Has A Hold On Me, which make perfect wedding songs. Also, the album contains two social awareness songs such as Children Of The World and Helping Hand which are just powerful in their message and instrumental arrangements. The slowest song on the album would be, Our Love. It's statement is straightforward while the music itself has a "sit back and relax" dreamy effect. Ofcourse, HOL spawned three hits which are House Of Love, Lucky One and Big Yellow Taxi. If you love soft summer and fall music, this album would be for you. I think it's the bomb! I highly recommend it!

This is the third Amy Grant CD that I own (the other two is her 1991 release Heart In Motion and her 1992 Christmas release Home For Christmas). With the ingredient of Pop, House Of Love produces simple, yet irresistible Pop songs.

The highlights of House of Love are:

"Lucky One" - A semi-upbeat, yet beautiful ballad. (5/5)

"Say You'll Be Mine" - A more upbeat, beautiful, fun love ballad. (5/5)

"House Of Love" - A beautiful duet between Amy and husband Vince Gill. (5/5)

"Whatever It Takes" - A beautiful ballad of devotion, but softer and more serious than "Say You'll Be Mine" and "Lucky One". (5/5)

"Big Yellow Taxi" - Not a favorite of mine, but it's a nice, fun cover of the original song. (4/5)

Even though this may seem to be a Pop album, "Children of the World" shows that she hasn't departed from her Christian roots.

I recommend House of Love to any fan of Amy Grant or any lover of fun, beautiful ballads, and social awareness songs. I wish Amy would release more Pop albums.. she does a good job of not going overboard and her songs are nice to listen to at any time in any mood.

Prior to 1991, Amy Grant had established herself as one of the most successful Christian Contemporary artists from both a commercial and critical standpoint. 1991 marked a big change in Amy's career. In that year Amy would release "Heart in Motion" which would establish her as a major force in mainstream music. One thing that made "Heart in Motion" a special album was that it tackled many different themes: family, relationships, the trials or fhe working woman, sexual abuse, and some Christian themes Three years following this release, Amy would embark on a long anticipated follow-up. This follow-up "House of Love" would continue down the mainstream music path, but would be a different album than "Heart in Motion". "Heart in Motion" was a very "peppy" album that focused on many themes. "House of Love" is an album that has much more of a "soft touch" and for the most part, focuses on the theme of love. Like "Heart in Motion", Amy doesn't completely abandon her Christian music roots, but clearly this isn't the focus of her effort. While this album is a good album, it doesn't live up to the level of quality we have seen on Amy's previous works.

I can look at Amy Grant's career as encompassing three main phases. The first phase covers 1977 through 1981 (her debut self-title album "Amy Grant" through the "In Concert Volume 2"). In this phase, Amy definitely showed her youthful side (her first album was released while she still was in high school). For the most part, Amy did some nice songs and was able to establish herself as a Contemporary Christian Artist. In Phase 2 (this would cover 1982-1988, starting with "Age to Age" and going to this album "Amy Grant - The Collection"), Amy ascended to legendary status in the Contemporary Christian music-world both commercially and criticially. This is where her husband to be Gary Chapman would begin to have an influence in her music. In this phase, Amy would show the most depth with her Christian music. When Phase 3 (1988 to present, starting with "Lead Me On" to present), Amy went into her full-fledged crossover into the mainstream (pop) music arena. "House of Love" falls right in the middle of Phase 3.

Amy's long-time producer Brown Bannister is back as the Executive Producer. Michael Omartian, who had taken over that role on "Heart in Motion". Omartian actually splits the song by song production duties with Keith Thomas. Perhaps Bannister is out of his element a bit (by producing Amy Grant as mainstream) and this is why this album isn't as strong. As on all Amy Grant albums, a staple throughout Amy's career is that she does some of the songwriting (either solo or collaborative) as well as uses songs by other songwriters. For "Heart in Motion", there was only one third party song. For "House of Love", there are four. Wayne Kirkpatrick and Keith Thomas are also back as two of Amy's key songwriting partners. Tommy Sims is also brought in as a key songwriting contributer.

One big surprise is the title track ("House of Love") is a third party song. Normally I would think an artist would want his/her own song to be a title song, but I guess when you look at things, "House of Love" makes a lot of sense. This is because of the 11 tracks, just about every track (with the exception of "Big Yellow Taxi") deal with the subject of love. Another interesting fact is that this is the one album that features Amy's first and second husband: First husband, Gary Chapman is a songwriting partner on "Whatever it Takes" and does background vocals on "Big Yellow Taxi" (clearly trouble was on the horizon since Gary now had a small role on this album). Second husband, Vince Gill performs the duet on the title track.

The problem with this album is that it just doesn't hit the homerun like many of Amy's previous albums. The best songs are "The Power", "Oh How the Years Go By", "Big Yellow Taxi", and "Helping Hand". Amy does a terrific job on covering Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" while Amy's version of "Oh How the Years Go By" is much stronger than Vanessa Williams' cover. With the exception of "Helping Hand", the other three songs mentioned above are third party songs. Overall, I think Amy's collaborations are much weaker than I have seen in the past. Songs like "Lucky One" and "House of Love" might have been released singles, but I just don't think these are the best songs. I don't think there are any bad tunes on this album, but most of them seem average.

As mentioned above, the album takes a much softer approach than "Heart in Motion". Although guitarist Jerry McPherson - who did some incredible guitar work on "Lead Me On"'s "Waiting For the Healing" and "Heart in Motion"'s "Good for Me" is back. He performs on five tracks, but doesn't get that great "breakout" performance like he did on those songs. There also seems to be more use of acoustic guitars on this album (this is a positive). Acoustic guitars are seen on "Lucky One", "The Power", "Big Yellow Taxi", and "Children of the World".

As for Christian Contemporary songs, songs like "The Power", "Helping Hand", "Love Has a Hold on Me", and "Children of the World" are probably the ones that fall into this realm. Overall, while Amy doesn't abandon her Christian Contemporary roots - this isn't her strongest effort in that genre. As for the liner notes, all of the lyrics to all of the songs are included. In addition all production and musician credits are listed song by song. This isn't a bad album, I just wouldn't categorize it as one of Amy's stronger collections. Overall, this album will probably satsify the Amy Grant fan - the jury is out on the casual fan.

Of all the albums Amy Grant has put out in her career, this is, in my opinion, the worst. Most of the songs are shallow and on-the-surface-type of songs. Only "Children on the World" and "The Power" offer the in depth insight that I have come to expect from Amy. House of Love is a 'happy' album and good to listen to if you want songs that are cheerful and somewhat brainless, but I have seen much better work from Amy in the past and even with her new album, "Behind the Eyes." I am not trying to say that this is a horrible album--just not very "Amy Grant-ish." She can do and has done better than this.

House of Love is forty-eight minutes and eight seconds and was released on August 26, 1994. House of Love reached #1 U.S. Top Christian Albums and #13 U.S Billboard 200 Album Chart and went Double Platinum. The cassette charted five songs and two of the going number one in the U.S. Billboard Christian Songs charts. House of Love is mainly composed of Christian, gospel, and a small amount of pop music to it. As always she has a great singing voice and the cassette is great to listen. I am giving House of Love by Amy Grant an A+.

Program One

Lucky One
#2 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
#18 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#16 U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream
Say You'll Be Mine
Whatever It Takes
House of Love
#5 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
#37 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#10 U.S. Billboard Top 40 Adult Recurrents
The Power
Oh How The Years Go By

Program Two

Big Yellow Taxi
#18 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
#67 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Helping Hand
#1 U.S. Billboard Christian Songs
Love Has A Hold On Me
Our Love
Children Of The World
#1 U.S. Billboard Christian Songs