Way I Am

Jennifer Knapp | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 20, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Gotee Records
• ASIN: B00005RGFI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,569 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. By and By

2. Breathe on Me

3. The Way I Am

4. Say Won't You Say

5. Around Me

6. Come to Me

7. Charity

8. Fall Down

9. Sing Mary Sing

10. In Two (The Lament)

11. Light of the World

12. No Regrets

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jen's most stirring and compelling album yet!, December 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Way I Am (Audio CD)

Christian folk-rocker Jennifer Knapp is one of those rare artists who seems to get better and better with every album. After releasing her smashing debut "Kansas" and the stunning follow-up "Lay It Down", Jen has released her most stirring and sophisticated album to date with "The Way I Am." Jen is known for writing songs about her struggles between her spirit and her flesh, with themes of brokenness, insecurity, and searching, and she continues to explore these themes with some of her most compelling lyrics ever. Musically, her sound has really matured on this album. You won't find as many catchy hooks on this album as on her previous two, but the depth of her creativeness and artistry on this album easily makes up for that. Her signature acoustic and elecric guitars are accented by sumptous string arrangements and melodic keyboards on several songs. The production on this album is top-notch. But as always, the best part of Jen's music is her golden voice, which can range from bold and edgy on one song (such as the title track and "Come to Me") to tender and vulnerable on another (such as "Say Won't You Say" and "Around Me"). Longtime fans of Jennifer who fell in love with her when she first came out are sure to fall in love with her all over again on this album. I know I did!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars talented musically, vocally, lyrically, August 15, 2002

By 

SharonA "quasirockdiva" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Way I Am (Audio CD)

A remake of Kansas, this album is definitely not. However, if you were to look objectively at this album, without comparing it to her previous work, you would hear a talented vocalist, musician, and songwriter. But since most of the reviews compare this album to her two earlier ones, I will also.

Her voice has matured, her guitar skills have improved, and the poetry in her lyrics reflects a deeper, richer, and more intense faith. Maybe a bit overproduced, but the combination of guitars and other stringed instruments works well to give a contrast of driving rhythms and melodic orchestration. Where her first CD belted out her desperate need of grace, this CD does that with a deeper understanding of the cost of that grace, with Christ's crucifixion as a subtle underlying thread throughout the songs.

Some might not like the musical direction of her artistry, but if you keep listening and set aside any preconceived notions of what kind of album she "should" have released, the CD just might grow on you and you'll appreciate "The Way I Am" as a reflection of Jennifer Knapp the artist, the woman, and the sinner saved by grace.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Christian album ever..., January 30, 2006

By 

David Lerner "Occasionally Professional Drumm... (Columbia, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Way I Am (Audio CD)

You may think that's not such a glowing recommendation, given the fact that the overwhelming majority of Contemporary Christian Music is subpar at best. However, this album sets the bar that all other CCM albums should be judged against.

This is Jennifer Knapp's third album, and Gotee Records pulled out all the stops on the production of this project. They hired some of the best studio musicians alive today, most notably Vinnie Colaiuta (Sting, Frank Zappa, Chick Corea) on drums and Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson) on bass. The only misstep on this album is producer Tony McAnany's decision to use a drum loop on a few of the songs, because I can't begin to understand why he would think that programmed drums would be a better choice than using Mr. Colaiuta's incredible skill throughout the entire album.

Lyrically, this is not an album of fun sing-alongs for your next campfire. Jennifer is plumbing the depths of her soul through this album, and not everything that she finds is what most would consider "uplifting," but it is certainly honest, and that is a breath of fresh air in a genre that spews out the same tired cliches time after time.

For instance, in the title track, she sings of how "It's better off this way - to be deaf, dumb and lame, than to be the way I am. It's better off this way, than be groping for the flame, than to be the way I am." I've read other people's reviews of this album to see if I even needed to review it, and it seems that I do, because people don't seem to be reading her lyrics correctly. The chorus to this song isn't saying that "it's better to seem humble by worldly standards than to go Godless as a carnal, worldly sinner," as one of the other reviews on this site claims. It's saying that it's better to not be able to hear, speak, or move, than be the way I am. It's better to be a vegetable than to be the way I am. It might even be a cry for help, who knows? Jennifer seems to have disappeared since this album came out almost five years ago now.

But every song on this album is gutwrenchingly honest, and beautiful at the same time. The beauty is found in the fact that there are so few people in Christian music who are willing to open up their hearts and write music from the darkest regions that they find there. The beauty is in admitting that, while the grace and mercy of God goes deep enough to reach even the darkest spots in our lives, it's still a struggle sometimes letting go of those places.

It's a struggle to make peace with the reaching through and beyond those dark places, to the fuller understanding of grace that lies on the other side of them. And it is Jennifer's willingness to draw back the curtain on her own struggle for peace that makes this album the best Christian album I've ever heard, even five years after it was first released...