Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Steven Curtis Chapman
Steven Curtis Chapman tabs Steven Curtis Chapman discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Steven Curtis Chapman guitar tabs

CD reviews

More to This Life

Steven Curtis Chapman - More to This Life Audio CD

A fair review of the Steven Curtis Chapman "More to This Life" 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: More to This Life
Rating:

Release Date: 1993-01-12
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: More to This Life 2: Love You With My Life 3: Waiting for Lightning 4: Living for the Moment 5: I Will Be Here 6: Who Makes the Rules 7: Treasure Island 8: Way Beyond the Blue 9: In This Little Room 10: More Than Words 11: Out in the Highways

My Favorite S.C.C album.

To this day, this is my favorite CD by Steven and his others just don't measure up. In the days I was purchasing mostly cassettes so I can listen to them on my Walkman (the 1980s/90 miserable equivalent to the iPod), I bought this CD back in it's heyday because of the bonus song. I have always enjoyed Steven's music which is contemporary and mades "religious" music more appealing to me back in my younger days. This album seems to find the perfect balance between Pop and Christian with some acoustic work and without the cheesiness that is evident on previous albums.

This album has more ballads with very meaningful lyrics than uptempo and so that may be a drawback for those wanting more upbeat music. In a way, I like that about this album because sometimes we need to slow it down and think about things that are more important than our everyday activities.

My all-time favorites on this album are:
More To This Life
Waiting For Lightning
I Will Be Here
Treasure Island
Way Beyond The Blue
More Than Words
Out In The Highways.

Excellent Album for Spiritual Growth
(I was already familiar with some of his previous singles, such as "His Eyes. Steven Curtis Chapman's More to This Life holds a soft spot in my heart, as it was the first album of his that I ever heard. ") Released in the summer of 1989, it easily contained the young (still in his mid-20s) singer/songwriter's best work to that date. Gone were the pop/rock sounds of Real Life Conversations (1988) that Chapman indisputably needed to grow into before he could effectively use them. Instead, More to This Life found Chapman majoring on a country/pop style with which he clearly was comfortable. The ability to play to his musical strengths may have allowed Chapman to spend more time on lyrics; the cliches found in abundance on his previous two albums mostly are missing from this go-round. Consequently, Chapman sounds considerably more confident and comfortable in his own skin on this album than on his first two projects. As a result, he created a near-classic contemporary Christian music album.

The album contains at least two classic Chapman tunes. The title track that opens the album begins with a sobering set of observations concerning everyday people and leads Chapman to ask the big questions that everyone faces at some point in his or her life: Why am I here? What makes life worth living? Chapman answers these questions by pointing to Jesus Christ's death on the cross. At the album's midpoint, "I Will Be Here" is a song of marital commitment amidst difficulties that quickly, and justifiably, became a standard evangelical Christian wedding song. (It was the first dance song for me and my wife!) Both of these songs may have lasted because they relate to personal situations in Chapman's life: he thought of the lyrics to the title track when returning from a relative's funeral, and the lyrics to "I Will Be Here" served as Chapman's declaration of commitment to his wife after his own parents divorced later in life.

The other songs are almost invariably very good in quality. "Love You With My Life" is a catchy pop tune about commitment to God. "Waiting for Lightning" is a moving ballad about how Christians too often miss God's direction because they're looking for signs and wonders. "Who Makes the Rules," which lyrically calls listeners to obedience to God, is mercifully the only imitation-Huey Lewis song on this album; Chapman's handlers evidently were finally getting the picture that their artist couldn't be fit into that box musically. (Mark O'Connor's violin on the song also helps distance the song a bit from Huey Lewis imitation land. ) "Treasure Island" and "Way Beyond the Blue" place in the forefront Chapman's grounded, practical imagination: comparing following God to a pirates' adventure and Air Force service provides the same type of metaphors that would become more prominent with Chapman's breakaway hit "The Great Adventure" a few years later. "In This Little Room" and "More Than Words" are personal, intimate declarations of intention that may prove moving to listeners.

That leaves only two subpar songs, and even they're still good. "Living for the Moment's" lyrics go hand-in-hand thematically with "More to This Life" and "Love You With My Life," but it lacks effective musical hooks. "Out on the Highways" was the album's bonus CD track, a marketing standard common when CDs were relatively new and music companies were trying to get people to switch to the new medium. There's nothing really wrong with the song, but despite a people-on-the-street theme that somewhat hearkens back to the album's opening track, it's neither all that memorable nor as effective an album closer as "More Than Words. "

Speaking of "More Than Words," I'd argue that both it and "Way Beyond the Blue" are still, 18 years later, two of Chapman's most beautiful songs. The sense of longing in Chapman's voice for his prayers, lyrics, and vows of commitment to God to be "more than words" is palpable. Here in a few places, and more completely on "Way Beyond the Blue," he lets his voice soar to a greater height than it had before. In fact, Chapman stretches himself vocally and writes more personally than on previous albums, to excellent effect.

More to This Life somewhat reminds me both musically and thematically of Rich Mullins' Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth (1988). Like Mullins on that album, Chapman is just beginning to hit his stride here. Also, again like Mullins, Chapman's tackling serious subjects. And like Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth, More to This Life is an album that can contribute well to Christians' spiritual growth, providing that its truths are applied by the listener.

Because in the end, what you have with More to This Life is an album that looks seriously at what it means to have a meaningful life. It's an album that points to both the joys and the sacrifices of the Christian life. Chapman would surpass himself quickly with his very next album, but More to This Life, though somewhat dated (particularly musically) now, still has considerable power and is quite enjoyable from a pop perspective. Four-and-a-quarter stars.

Good Album
The songs "More To This Life" and "I Will Be Here" are the most inspirational songs of this album.

A Universal Message
Containing -11 tracks- of not only enjoyable, uplifting music and lyrics, but also conveying a level of depth and introspection that set this collection of songs above most of the other contemporary Christian music being released at the time. Released in '89 under the Sparrow Records label, 'More To This Life' was the third album/CD by Christian songwriter/singer Steven Curtis Chapman.

'More To This Life' was not formula-matic and predictable and it fully displayed Steven's ability to touch on so many different concerns in life and present the gospel message in an intelligent, unoffensive manner. I think the biggest praise I could give this CD is that you don't have to be a Christian to enjoy it. After all, isn't that the true intent of Christian music? You can't convert anyone if you can't get them to listen.

Perfect
I wouldn't change a single thing. This CD is perfect. I thought this the first time I heard it in 1989, and I still feel that way! There are only 2 other CD's I find perfect: Amy Grant's "Lead Me On" and Allan Hall's (from Selah) "House of a Thousand Dreams". If you like Steven Curtis Chapman but are bored with his new stuff, or just want an inspiring, wonderful CD, I would get "More to This Life" right now! My all time favorite song on the planet is "Way Beyond the Blue". As a teenager, I made a cassette (didn't have a CD player then!) of this song, filling up an entire side, so I could listen to it at night over and over without having to rewind after each play, until I fell asleep to the words "His love is wider than the sky above you/And He has plans for you that go way beyond the blue". Words can't describe the impact this song and entire CD had and still has on my Christian walk, and actually making me believe in a very real way that God knows who I am and cares for ME (and you) with a love that is beyond human comprehension. I would recommend this CD to anyone of any age. I liked it at 16, 25 and now at 31! .

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.