Greatest Hits

After three decades with Word Records, Amy Grant transferred her entire back catalog -- including her pop releases under A&M -- to the Christian arm of EMI. The new label home marked the occasion by issuing Greatest Hits, Grant's third single-disc anthology but the first that paid tribute to her entire Christian and mainstream repertoires as a whole -- not separately like The Collection and Greatest Hits 1986-2004 did when they were first released. Thirty years of trajectory is a lot of ground to cover on one disc, but Greatest Hits does so gingerly, as it includes all the highlights -- minus Christmas and live albums -- of Grant's career, ranging from her 1977 self-titled debut all the way to her final album for A&M, the sobering Simple Things. The songs are presented retrospectively from newest to oldest, which is an interesting way of retracing the sound of a singer who got progressively slicker with each passing album. Unavoidably, some eras get more attention than the others, like the Heart in Motion years, which are represented by a whopping five songs -- all of them excellent from an adult contemporary perspective. Grant gets more and more unassuming as the set approaches the '80s, but she's no less charming: her girl next door persona has always been -- and continues to be -- her strongest draw. Even if Greatest Hits isn't quite the commemorative capstone to 30 years in music -- the liner notes by Grant are candid but overall too short and underwhelming -- Greatest Hits is still the most complete, overarching collection of hits and favorites from one of CCM's biggest legends. ~ Andree Farias