"...(Sam Phillips' song) 'I love you when you don't do anything,' (is) a spiritual anthem that comes close to reaching a level of the heavens generally reserved for U2's songs. Standing in stark contrast to the (album's) surrounding songs about a frail, broken, corrupted human love—a love with strings attached and no lasting guarantees—this song is a stirring reminder of a perfect, redeeming love that provides all that it asks for.
'I love you when you don't do anything,' sings Phillips, and it's hard to hear the song as anything but a testament to God's grace, a love that comes with no conditions. It's a bright light in the midst of Phillips' personal darkness, and it illuminates all the shadows here, turning the album into a celebration of grace in the midst of chaos. As Phillips told Christianity Today magazine for their review of the album, 'It's a pretty radical statement. Everything is so performance oriented in our society that it's easy to lose sight of grace and love.'
...It's no surprise Phillips lists 'making order out of chaos' as her favorite hobby in her official bio, even if, as she wryly notes, it doesn't often work. Her music does something even better: It bears honest, painful witness to the truths of this world's darkness, but also reminds us of the light that never goes out. Don't Do Anything is a harrowing work, to be sure, but it's also hopeful—the kind of art that was no doubt therapeutic for the artist, and, if paid the attention it deserves, just might prove moving and inspiring to listeners, as well."
-Josh Hurst, Glimpses of God
More on San Phillips here
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