Olivia Newton-John revisits the material from her 2006 album Grace and Gratitude on 2010’s Grace and Gratitude Renewed, a fitting title for the project that gives little clue to the music within.
Newton-John returned to these songs of faith and healing to give them a slightly different spin: originally, they were written and recorded during the healing process; now, they have been recorded from a place of serenity. To the outsider, these differences may wind up being a bit too subtle to discern as both records sound as if they’re coming from a calm, peaceful vantage point, offering new age paeans of pancultural religion, incorporating Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity under a warm, fuzzy umbrella. It’s easy to knock this for not exactly being compelling -- it glides, it doesn’t grab -- but that’s the whole point: this is meditative mood music and it’s gauzily effective in that regard in either of its incarnations. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine