It's about time Natalie Grant got Relentless
Posted July 22, 2008
By Nathan,
It’s been a while since Natalie Grant fans had something to cheer about. It had been almost three years since her last album Awaken in 2005. Recently the two time female vocalist of the year gave her fans the hit single “in better hands” which sounded like a former hit “held” and that set the stage for her latest Relentless.
It’s hard to tie down Natalie Grant’s music to one or two simple genres and Relentless is not exception as she throws out pop, medium rock, adult contemporary, and even a hint of hip hop on one track. Surprisingly there are no real worship songs, save the hymn “in Christ alone”. One thing that sticks out about Grant (that probably made her popular in the first place) is her emotional and sometimes over dramatic songs. There is plenty of evidence for that on “in better hands” which is a emotional, simple piano driven song, and “make a way” which is a ballad that stays very light from start to finish. Grant also tried her hand at rock a few times, most notably the single “I will not be moved” where in the middle of her medium rock chorus is the main piece from the hymn “my hope is built on nothing less” (which has a lot of twang to it).
Her success may not be rooted by the fact that she is attractive, as much as her voice is very solid, even among her moments of twang. An example of that lies with “safe” where her voice shines among the piano and violin in one of the albums abundance of ballads. The wild cards on Relentless may surprise fans musically like the up beat rock tune “make it better” and, especially “so long” where her music has a hip-hop flair and a style similar to that of Mary Mary and “shackles”. Natalie doesn’t seem to act her age, or at least what music style she should be doing on “let go” when her music gets up beat and almost catchy.
The key phrase and the reason for the title can be summed by Grant: ‘God is relentless because his love for us is limitless, unconditional and undying’. That theme definitely plays a part in her album on tracks like “make a way” (a song about a girl who left home in pursuit of fame but found hard years, but eventually Christ) and “our hope endures” which deals with the hope we can have when the darkest time hits. “I will not be moved” is taken from Psalm 62:2 and “so long” reflects on the redemption and her past self (‘Apathy, hunting me/Like some contagious disease/Hypocrisy hiding in the shadows… Those stains of my history are gone, gone, gone’).
For the hit single the fun of the song lasted about twenty seconds until the line ‘You cant love if you don’t love yourself’ (God’s word says something’s that contradict that statement) and while that line may have had you thinking this was somewhat about the matter of “self esteem” think again. According to Grant it’s about a person who suffered burns over 85% of his body. Okay nice but that story is not at all reflected in the song. And a few songs are not quite that impressive, especially “wonderful life” where the deepest line is ‘Is the perfect day to be alive/So no more waiting now’. While “make it matter has is a decent song at heart it gets a little cliché (‘Take my life and lift me up to the sky/Take my dreams and help me to fly’).
Except for the over stocked ballads and over dramatized tunes, her album is surprisingly musically sound… and diverse to, making Relentless a solid listen from beginning to end with few pot holes. However the album as a whole is not without faults because in the midst of her sweet sounding songs there is some lyrical depth lacked. That aside the time taken from Natalie Grant to make paid off enough to please fans and maybe make some new ones. View All Music And Book Reviews By Nathan | View Nathan's Profile
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