One cannot approach
Tell Me What You Know,
Sara Groves' sixth album, expecting a lot of surprises. Sure,
Groves is a perennial favorite among Christian music critics and audiophiles, but her high marks aren't necessarily a result of innovation or avant-garde career moves as much as of a strong, rock-solid track record of equally strong, rock-solid songwriting about Christian living and faith. Despite being a pop artist at heart, a lot of her depth is lost on more mainstream, radio-weaned Christian audiences, mainly because she dwells in the more sophisticated, triple-A side of pop, not the commercial, big-time pop/rock of, say, a
Casting Crowns or a
Chris Tomlin. Still,
Groves is very comfortable at what she does, so much so that
Tell Me What You Know could appear as if it was cut from the same mold as her celebrated
The Other Side of Something and
Add to the Beauty projects. Of course,
Groves realizes how easily this brand of piano-based adult pop comes to her, so she tries to distance herself from her core strengths by way of offbeat, alternative pop -- never more evident than in the poignant "Song for My Sons" and the eccentric mini-masterpiece "In the Girl There's a Room." After that, though, she quickly retreats to what she does best -- namely, bouncy, quirky pop pieces ("Love Is Still a Worthy Cause"), tender folk dialogs ("Say a Prayer"), and pensive, piano-based balladry ("I Saw What I Saw"), all of which, while not mind-blowingly novel, are indeed moving, thought-provoking numbers, performed with finesse and inspired by
Groves' newfound passion for reaching out to the least of these. In this regard,
Tell Me What You Know deserves a mention, if not for its overall uniqueness, then for continuing to solidify
Groves as one of the most important, consistent Christian singer/songwriters of the new millennium.