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Real Life Conversations

Steven Curtis Chapman - Real Life Conversations Audio CD

A fair review of the Steven Curtis Chapman "Real Life Conversations" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Steven Curtis Chapman reviews here, or go back to the Steven Curtis Chapman tabs.

Band: Steven Curtis Chapman
Title: Real Life Conversations
Rating:

Release Date: 1994-07-12
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Faithful Too 2: Tuesday's Child 3: For Who He Really Is 4: Consider This Done 5: His Eyes 6: Human Race 7: Wait 8: Truth or Consequences 9: My Turn Now 10: His Strength Is Perfect

SCC Second Album
Good Lyrics just nothin really stands out to me. This is alot better than First Hand but it still seems to be lacking something. Standout song would be the praise ballad "His Strength is Perfect. " An OK album.

Chapman Continues to Search for His Own Voice
Someone had confidence in Chapman by this point: the production values are noticeably higher than on his first album, First Hand (1987), with more of a pop/rock style, fuller instrumentation, and bigger background vocals common throughout. Steven Curtis Chapman's Real Life Conversations, his sophomore effort, was released in the summer of 1988. But while this album represents a step up for Chapman, he is still searching for his own voice here and is not served by the all-too-obvious efforts to make him a clone of various popular '80s secular artists (a problem also found on First Hand).

The album opens with "Faithful Too," a hard-driving pop/rock song that is followed by the pop sounds of "Tuesday's Child. " Both are mildly enjoyable, but they're only good and not great. The problem here is that Chapman, while not awful as a pop/rock artist, clearly is not yet comfortable with that role. As a result, half of the album's tracks fail to reach the heights they could. (The other three tracks suffering from this flaw are "Consider It Done," "The Human Race," and "Truth or Consequences. ")

Fortunately, there's one exception to this trend: "My Turn Now" is a successfully realized pop effort that was a contemporary Christian music (CCM) radio hit and a concert staple for many years. It lyrically comes across as a considerably more polished final draft of First Hand's less successful "Dying to Live. " It also has some musical commonalities with that previous song.

Chapman also mostly excels on the ballads, just as he did on the previous album. "His Eyes" also climbed the radio charts and justifiably netted Chapman a Dove award; it's a beautiful country-tinged ballad with a surprising amount of depth conveyed through poetic lyrics. "For Who He Really Is" is a successful pop ballad/radio hit that communicates the same message present on First Hand's "Do They Know," but which surpasses that tune in every way. "His Strength Is Perfect" is a comforting praise song designed for worship that for some reason never really made it into evangelical churches. In contrast, the good but not-made-for-congregational-singing "Wait" became a reasonably popular evangelical church worship soloist selection.

Real Life Conversations follows First Hand lyrically by continuing to explore the many facets of discipleship in the Christian life. On the previous album, Chapman focused on motivating his listeners to actively pursue Christ. This time around, he encourages listeners to rest in their position in Christ (most obviously on "Consider It Done") and examines the position/practice distinction prevalent in many evangelical circles. He paints the picture of security in Christ leading to confident action. While the message is valuable, unfortunately Chapman still has a way to go as a lyricist; far too often, he resorts to evangelical standards and sometimes crosses over into cliches.

Real Life Conversations' major weakness comes from the continuing attempts to fit Chapman in the box of an '80s pop star. As on First Hand, the Huey Lewis imitations are glaring, particularly on "Tuesday's Child" and "The Human Race. " Thankfully, the only Kenny Loggins imitation this time around comes from the opening chords of "Faithful Too," but Chapman all too obviously is inspired by Bruce Hornsby's summer 1987 hit "Mandolin Rain" on "For Who He Really Is. " But the worst offender is "Consider It Done," which is embarrassingly derivative of a number of artists. The opening chords seem to steal simultaneously from Hall and Oates' "You Make My Dreams" and the J. Geils Band's "Freeze Frame," and there are strong musical similarities to Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It" as well. I found myself singing parts of all of those songs over "Consider It Done's" tune; in particular, it's way too easy to sing the "didilididit" from "Freeze Frame" between Chapman's pauses.

Producer Phil Naish wisely would help Chapman steer to his strengths in the country/pop field on his very next album, More to This Life (1989). That approach, which was developed further on For the Sake of the Call (1990) and reached its zenith on The Great Adventure (1992), brought Chapman to front-runner status in CCM. He then returned to the pop/rock field as a much more confident artist with Heaven in the Real World (1994). Despite the middling success at pop/rock, Real Life Conversations is considerably better from a production standpoint and can boast slightly better lyrics than First Hand. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if some people favor Chapman's debut album over this album.

Steven's First Great Project
While he occasionally slips into trite lyrics, his lyrics are often challenging. When listing my favorite artists, Steven Curtis Chapman tops my list. And his music is always fun to listen to.

This CD was his second release and came out in 1988. While I've never been a big fan of his first project, I love this one.

He really hits it out of the park on most of the songs. The reminder to look to God in both the good and bad really hits home with "Faithful Too. " I love the themes of grace woven into "Tuesday's Child" and "His Strength is Perfect. " And our response of submission is highlighted in "My Turn Now. " I especially love the reminder of "His Eye" - God is truly always with us.

Even though this album is from the 80's, it doesn't wallow in the 80's production. The pop/rock music has a few light 80's elements, but many of these songs sound timeless.

Not all of Steven's early projects are that remarkable, but this is a great gem I still enjoy almost 20 years later.

Super Album!
As such this album helped make me one of SCC's fans. This is the first Steven Curtis Chapman album that I ever heard. I have purchased almost all of his albums (many of them a couple of times). Steven Curtis Chapman brings out a harder Christian Rock style that very few artists at the time (1987) had gotten into. In 1987 most Chistian artists were doing more gospel than rock (at least the ones I heard). The music style of this album is similar to that of his Decleration album. There are several songs that are a little bit harder rock. Then there are also about that same number of tracks that are a softer rock style. In my opinion this is one of his best albums right along with The Great Adventure and Decleration. If you have enjoyed either one of these other albums, you will very likely enjoy Real Life Conversations!.

Still finding his way, but better than the debut
Chapman's still not a great singer here, but he's stretching himself more and that makes it a more listenable affair. Steven Curtis' first outing (FIRST HAND) was plagued quite a bit by boring musical arrangements and trite lyrics coupled with uninspiring vocals. On the lyric front, there's still quite a few shopworn phrases and ideas but occasionally Chapman lets the platitudes go and those moments are the bright spots of the disc. Even the music is starting to pick up some fire though not what it would be in forthcoming discs.

Grace seems to be a recurring theme here as Chapman addresses it in "Tuesday's Child", "Consider it Done", and "His Strength is Perfect". Perhaps he was troubled by too much emphasis on theologies of "victory" and "overcoming" within Christendom?

This disc is where Chapman began to be an omnipresent force on Christian radio. This CD was the first in a string of 5 albums that had AT LEAST 4 radio hits per disc. For many, "CCM" means "Contemporary CHAPMAN Music". . . .

HIGHLIGHTS:
"For Who He Really Is" (#6 hit) forces those of us who would bear Christ's name to take a hard look at what we're displaying as he takes on the faces of unbelievers disillusioned with hypocrisy and the "everything's OK" mentalities within much of the Church. ("Can they see God for who He really is?/In what they see in you and me. . ") It's especially telling when Chapman asks "But does he know that Jesus also has scars?" as he takes on the guise of a man suffering in the midst of a "religion that's all dressed up in white". The bouncy "Consider it Done" is the best of Chapman's musings on grace as he tells a Christian struggling in sin "He wants our best and He'll do the rest/It's by His grace we're saved/Not by the things we do. . . ". "His Eyes" (#12 hit and Dove Award for Best Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of 1989) is a delicate acoustic guitar ballad with a country tinge that reminds us of the simple truth that "His eyes are always upon you" in a tune gentle enough to be a lullaby. "My Turn Now" (#3 hit) is a call to Christian service that's basic and irresistable in its directness: "He gave His love and life away/And now he's asking me to do the same. . . it's my turn now. . . "

LOWS:
Despite some good bits lyrically ("Sounds too easy some might say/There's a bigger price to pay. . ") in his treatise on grace rather than "works-based" salvation, in the end "Tuesday's Child" just isn't that great a tune. "Faithful TOo" (#14 hit) is based on the old saw that we have to seek God in the good times, not just when things are tough. "Human Race" decries materialism but again the "we're all running in the human race" bit is pretty cliched.

BOTTOM LINE:
Steven Curtis fans will eat this up whole, but it's still not his finest work despite flashes of brilliance. If you like lighter pop fare, you may want to see if you can borrow it from a friend or your local library. It's definitely not a "must have" for your collection, though.

You can see a complete list of all Steven Curtis Chapman discography, or go back to the Steven Curtis Chapman tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.