Gravity

Description

Gravity is the fourth album by the American pop duo Out of the Grey (husband-and-wife Scott and Christine Denté), released on Sparrow Records in 1995, distributed by Chordant Distribution Group. The album was produced by Charlie Peacock.

The music of Scott and Christine Denté has always been the music of reality – of real Christianity. Not what people think the Christian life is. Not what many have been taught it is. Not what many think it should be. What it is. Out of the Grey is the sound of vulnerability and release found in Christ, weighted in the day to day.

The realness has never been more thematically encompassing than it is on their latest release, ‘Gravity’, produced by Charlie Peacock. From the restful truth of mercy to the reality of forgiveness found, almost every cut on the album is drenched in the sweaty, tearful struggles and the surprising joys of real life. It is gritty and witty and wise.

Christine Denté delivers as much if not more vocally on this project because the album offers more stylistic variety, a wider range of possibilities for her talents to be tested. Sonically, the album surpasses the merits of last year’s ‘Diamond Days‘ by giving glimpses once again of the organic energy and intensity that first caught the listener’s attention on the duo’s self-titled debut and sophomore project ‘Shape of Grace’.

Lyrically, ‘Gravity’ is rooted in the “imagery of real stuff”; There are “closet[s] of neglect,” “wings that cannot take you home,” “hope are at both ends of the telescope,” the tangible stuff of life entwined with phrases of real conviction, teaching us not to “take lightly what He carried on His back.” «Dreaming of April» is, in itself, a lyrical personification of spring’s beauty that leaves you expecting her to walk in any moment, even if it is July.

The most warming cut is «So We Never Went To Paris», which I’ll call “kitchen reality.” It is the realization that life’s “…cup fills up so quickly/There’s so much on our plate/Between the living and the learning/Some things must wait.” It’s a call to realize that the world is sitting around your kitchen table (or under it) eating Cheerios and spilling milk. Scott Dente’s masterful acoustic flair and Tim Lauer’s accordion gives this cut that homey, Parisian feel that even non-romantics would find inviting.

«Pretending» and «Bird on a Wire» are musically intriguing, playing out hauntingly painful sounds of deception and the struggling wings of self-struggle. You can hear that tired bird flying lower and lower, squinting for a safe place to land.

After all of that, I’m still not sure what makes this album so compelling. My good guess is this, though: It gives the listener something rare – a small, but good view of the big picture. With ‘Gravity’, Out of the Grey cracks open the door between knowing ourselves and knowing ourselves within the grand scheme of God’s design. It’s about more than just being there. It’s about understanding Who holds us here. [Melissa Riddle, CCM, July 1995]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/gravity/716264501)

CD tracklist:

01. Stay Close – 3:46
02. When Love Comes To Life – 4:13
03. Hope In Sight – 3:56
04. So We Never Got To Paris – 4:00
05. The Weight Of The Words – 4:20
06. Gravity – 4:11
07. Pretending – 3:03
08. I Can Wait – 3:30
09. Bird On A Wire – 4:25
10. Dreaming Of April – 3:46

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Sparrow Records.

The August 1995 issue of CCM Magazine featured a cover story on Out of the Grey.