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LeAnn Rimes - We Accept You In Our Family

October 22nd, 2007

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Leann Rimes - Family Review
Family album review

by Bambi Weavil

LeAnn Rimes has always impressed me. One of the few artists who started at a young age who hasn’t wrecked their professional and personal life, and is smart enough to know the difference between believing the Hollywood/Nashville music machines and being a talented musician who has a identity off the stage. LeAnn Rimes is a country artist, but she can be whatever she wants. LeAnn has flirted with both country and pop, she’s written children books before Madonna did, she’s acted in films and on television and has built a strong fan base in the U. S. and in Europe. Her poise is ever-present on this album and she’s come a long way since being the young lady who impressed the world with “Blue” at age 11.

Family is the first album where LeAnn has co-written or written every song on the album. Yet another risk, as LeAnn expressed, “I’m just completely baring my insides. People feel like they’ve known me for so long. They’ve grown up with me and I’ve grown up with them. A lot of people believe what they read and what they see on the surface, but there’s so much underneath for me as a human being, not as an artist, and that’s where this is coming from. It’s coming from real life.”

LeAnn creates comfortable music, a great collection of songs about relationships and family. With her voice better than ever, there’s no doubt that LeAnn is in a secure place in her life. “Nothin’ Better To Do,” the first single from Family, is a playful song about what life would be like if she had grown up in Mississippi instead of Texas. “Fight” is honest as you’re going to hear, about the complexity of relationships and the push/pull that comes along with that. “Fight” is a perfect example of LeAnn truly stepping into the staircase of Reba McEntire type records that bring out feeling, truth and talent. “Something I Can Feel” is one of my personal favorite songs on the record, about finding the love that gets better and better and I can’t imagine this not being a hit for LeAnn. “Doesn’t Everybody” breaks it down for everybody to understand: that no matter if you have a tabloid life and “pay for all your friends” everyone still wants to be loved.

LeAnn duets with the ever-talented Marc Broussand for the sexy and dangerously chancy “Nothing Wrong,” about working that fine line between cheating and fantasy. Their voices blend together nicely and that could make one hell of a tour. “Pretty Thing” is the most stereotypical country song you’re going to hear on this CD and is probably the whole reason this song is listed as a country album. I would have left it off myself, but “Upper Hand” is a good country radio song - it has a good momentum and would be a song that the Fancy character in Reba McEntire’s “Fancy” could have easily written about her life.

“One Day Too Long” is LeAnn the (pop/gospel-good!) Diva at her best and I could easily see a drag performance to this song. The gay community and LeAnn have had a faithful love affair with each other and I believe it’s only going to continue. “What I Cannot Change” is yet another honest to God song about the wisdom to understand that you should let go what you can’t change and yet another serious contender as a future top ten hit. The two bonus tracks are two special duets of songs not written by LeAnn, with Jon Bon Jovi and the one and only Reba McEntire. I favor the Reba song over the Bon Jovi song, but both are nice additions to a already stellar album.

If LeAnn puts out a record, you can count on me buying it, that’s how much I bank on this artist to release good material, regardless of the genre it’s indexed under.

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