For those of you who didn't know me in high school, the time has come to admit that I was obsessed with a certain CCM group called Point of Grace. I have been revisiting those cds recently (in a sense, it feels a bit like a 5-year high school reunion) since I currently spend 8-12 hours a day with nothing but a pile of plant cuttings and a walkman, and I have some thoughts on what I've been hearing.

First of all, it is astounding to me that the members of the group (whose names, yes, I still know--first, middle, maiden, last, husbands, and children--and whose voices I can still recognize within 3 notes) were in college when they started singing together and that they made it big, at least within the Christian music realm, not long after. When I was in high school, college was nearly as inconceivable as national fame, so it didn't seem all that special; on this side of college it seems inconceivable that four random girls from a small Christian school could just decide to be a music group and become famous. And only one of them was a music major. Huh.

Second, having gone through and listened to the first four cds consecutively and put my super-grad-student-analysis skills to work, I've decide that they have actual themes (might we even say, theses?) rather than being just a collection of random songs thrown on cds. Here's what I think (briefly. And please remember I've been ruminating on this for hours in the cuttings room):
Point of Grace, the first cd, is all about statements of belief/faith. You've got "I'll Be Believing," "I Have No Doubt," "Living the Legacy," just to name a few. The Whole Truth, as the title suggests, tends to be the most hard-hitting and is my least favorite. I think it's a little too sure of itself and kind of finger-pointy, like in "What's He Gonna Say About Me." Then with Life, Love, and Other Mysteries, we have complete backpedalling into "actually, just kidding, we don't really know much of anything," like "God Forbid" and the title track. I also like "Gone Are the Dark Days" as at least an acknowledgement of such a thing as the dark night of the soul in Christian experience, although it's only addressed in the past tense. Then Steady On (which clever Sherlocks will note became part of my email address in the 10th grade, there to remain forever and ever*) moves past some of the questions raised in LLOM to just revel in the incomprehensibility of God, as in "Jesus Is," "Who Am I," and the one song so far that I may actually continue to listen to somewhat regularly, "The Wonder of It All."

Aaanddd, that's as far as I've gotten. I think I have Free to Fly around here somewhere, but I definitely haven't listened to it enough to form an educated opinion about it. Steady On was the last one that I really got all that excited about. I haven't even heard I Choose You. Still, the memories... I met Sophie online at a Point of Grace chatsite and she became my college roommate. I spent countless hours waiting in an autograph line with Kim (often to get cut off at the last minute by a stern bodyguard). And I learned HTML designing my own Point of Grace website.



*Choosing an email address should be regarded as an important life choice, to be approached with careful thought and maturity, like buying a house or acquiring a pet. 0 comments

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