First, let me say that I love Chris Rice. He has a true appeal to him; in the same way a big ol\u2019 friendly, hairy, gregarious dog is irresistible. You want <\/i>to pet the dog, let him lick your face, and jump up on you with his big paws. <\/p>\n
Not that I want Rice to lick my face or anything. But on record, Rice has much the same charisma as a lovable dog — goofy, ebullient, clearly a fun person to be with and someone we all would like to have as a best friend. Remember \u201cCartoons?\u201d But also an artist who could touch your deepest pain or fear with the empathy of a best friend (\u201cLive By Faith\u201d).<\/p>\n
However, since 2003\u2019s, Run The Earth, Watch The Sky<\/i>, Rice has appeared to stumble a bit. Granted, there have been some significant changes in his life, including not a little pressure from having three albums perform so <\/i>well right out of the gate (1997\u2019s Deep Enough To Dream<\/i>, 1998\u2019s Past The Edges<\/i> and 2000\u2019s Smell The Color 9<\/i>).\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Run The Earth\u2026 <\/i>contained some high points, chief among them \u201cUntitled Hymn,\u201d but failed to connect as well with some listeners. Amusing <\/i>from 2005 saw a small, yet significant, expansion of Rice\u2019 vision with \u201cWhen Did You Fall,\u201d his tale of a bemused man who suddenly realizes a woman has fallen in love with him, taking a run up the secular charts to No. 15 on Billboard\u2019s Adult Contemporary Chart, but, again, felt incomplete. <\/p>\n
What A Heart Is Beating For<\/i> follows in the tracks of its predecessor, reaching out for the wider audience beyond the CCM genre while not turning its back on the core. This time, Rice seems to connect the dots in a more complete way. <\/p>\n
Opening tune \u201cSo Much For My Sad Song\u201d is classic Rice: Thoughtful, amusing lyrics set to a tender James Taylor-esque acoustic mid-tempo tune. His knack for creating word pictures that place the listener right there with him is firmly in place: \u201cThe first thought through my sleepy head \/ When I fell out of my bed \/ Is \u2018I hope the sky is grey, I\u2019m gonna write a sad song today\u2019 \/ So I make up my mind, slip on my shoes \/ I\u2019m gonna pick up a paper and read the news \/ Cause I\u2019m sure to find quite enough blues to write my sad song.\u201d But things don\u2019t quite work out, because Rice sees his wife and \u201cI think of you and the only blues to hit my eyes are those beautiful blues in the clear blue sky \/ So much for my sad song.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the title song, Rice takes a broad look at what love is and acknowledges that love is not all blue skies and euphoria. Love can also be painful and frightening and a \u201clullaby and a hurricane, too.\u201d Learning to take the chance for the greater payoff is what a heart is beating for and \u201cthe only way to gain is to give it all away.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, the lyrics have made no explicit Christian claims, but the topics are so infused with Rice\u2019 Christian worldview that the connections can be made by the heart that is open to the Spirit: \u201cOh, why be afraid, no reason to hide \/ Take a chance, put it all on the line \/ Draw in a deep breath and throw open the door \/ \u2018Cause that\u2019s what a heart is beating for.\u201d It\u2019s not hard to make the spiritual connection here, especially with the music ramping up to an uplifting climax at just the right point. <\/p>\n
Elsewhere on the disc, Rice does offer more overt spiritual themes, but the reality of living with the Spirit in our everyday lives is the focus of this collection. <\/p>\n
Other highlights: \u201cPardon My Dust,\u201d an interesting take on the signs (Pardon our dust. Expanding to serve you better!) you often see when a business is growing; \u201cYou Don\u2019t Have To Yell,\u201d a plea for reason and sanity in public discourse; and \u201cSneakin\u2019 Into Heaven,\u201d the story of a man who borrows a halo so he can visit heaven.<\/p>\n
Weaknesses: Too many ballad-y songs with tempos that drag the energy of the rest of the record down; the presence of the song \u201cLemonade\u201d for the second album in a row (I don\u2019t know why \u2013 it\u2019s not that great); and \u201cHere Comes Those Eyes\u201d the other half of \u201cWhen Did You Fall\u201d set to a sort of shuffle beat. <\/p>\n
Overall, a great time for both fans and dog lovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":28972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8032],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-40478","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-chris-rice","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40478"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}