Steven Curtis Chapman - The Videos

Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

Few can claim to have a had a music ministry as consistently strong as Steven Curtis Chapman's and, having built up a stunning back catalogue, it is now time for the videos of a handful of his best known tracks to be released. 11 videos are featured here ranging from some of his earlier offerings (such as "Heaven In The Real World") to more recent songs like "Dive" and "Live Out Loud" from the 'Speechless' and 'Declaration' albums. Generally, the video production is of excellent quality - especially the beautiful adoption-themed "When Love Takes You In" which features Steven and Mary Beth's own adopted daughter. For the feel good factor, "Live Out Loud" and "Lord Of The Dance" deliver the goods whilst "Christmas Is All In The Heart" has a underlying plot that unravels itself after a couple of viewings. There does tend to be a predominant use of black and white which, had it been used more sparingly, would have been more effective but this does not take away from the quality of most of the videos. It must be assumed that "The Great Adventure" (complete with the dreadful "saddle up your horses" refrain) is included here for posterity - check out SCC in his Jason Donovan days together with the overuse of the obvious livestock. Special features include running commentaries by SCC himself plus two videos featuring the muses of producer Brandon Dickerson. This adds dimension to the proceedings and, without these commentaries, viewers may never have picked up on the Hitchcock connection with "Live Out Loud" and the cameo by Oswald Chambers' daughter in "Not Home Yet."