LeAnn Rimes - Spitfire
Album Review by: Cheryl Harvey Hill
In her bio LeAnn Rimes says, “I'm not just a voice – I have something to say.” On Spitfire she uses her awe-inspiring vocals, over the course of thirteen amazing and engaging tracks, to say quite a lot and to eloquently drive her message home. She co-wrote on eight of the thirteen tracks and on some cuts she unabashedly lays her soul bare, no longer afraid of the haters.
Rimes says, “In this album, I'm speaking more honestly than I ever have, from the truth and pain and love in my life, and hoping that people connect with those emotions.” Seriously, if you really listen, I don't see how you can help but connect. How many times have we heard someone say, in reference to a country song, “they are singing my life”? That is where this album shines, Rimes is not merely sympathetic, she is totally empathetic, so she is not only singing her life, but my life and your life and so on and so on.
When you listen to the soulful “What Have I Done”, you definitely sense the pain she feels and her angst for the sorrow she was a party to and when she covers the Missy Higgins song, “Where I Stood”, her voice is absolutely mesmerizing and you can feel the heartbreak all around.
I tend to favor the ballads but I have to admit I hit replay quite a few times on the title track and “God Takes Care of Your Kind” got my toes involuntarily tappin' but if I had to choose one up-tempo tune as my favorite from this album, it would probably be “Bottle”. As always, I'm a sucker for the banjo but although the banjo reeled me in on this track, it was the lyrics that caused me to hit replay. In fact, the writing on the entire album is excellent and on these last two tracks I mentioned, you may not even realize the melody belies the lyrics until you really listen to the songs.
Vocally I think Rimes effortlessly soars beyond perfection on “A Waste Is A Terrible Thing To Mind”, and, quite honestly, I also love the title because it's such a clever play on words. I think this just might be my favorite track but I have to say
that the entire album was so well written, choosing just one song was really difficult.
The final track on the album is a beautifully poignant ballad. In the“cut by cut” Rimes says, “The beginning of the album, 'Spitfire,' has the angry wish to untie my tongue and lash out. But [“Who We Really Are”] is how I wanted to end the
album, with the realization that it's not that cut and dry. The right words don't always exist.”
The first time I saw her in concert she was a very young girl whose magnificent voice enabled her to deliver emotional lyrics that belied her life experience. Fast forward through seventeen years and she still has that same incredible voice only now the emotions that deliver the songs are all the more powerful because they come from deep within her own personal experience. She has grown into a very beautiful, sophisticated young woman whose talent quotients are off the charts but personally, I hope Rimes continues to be a little“spitfire” for a very long time.
“This album is a peek into my world; who I am, what I've gone through, what my emotions are. It's an intimate conversation between myself and whom ever is listening. I hope I'm saying things that are hard for others to express. It certainly took me a lot of work to get to this point. And it's still easier to sing these thoughts than it is to say them out loud. The intimacy in my music is just beginning.” LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes - Editorial
LeAnn Rimes - Greatest Hits
LeAnn Rimes - This Woman
In her bio LeAnn Rimes says, “I'm not just a voice – I have something to say.” On Spitfire she uses her awe-inspiring vocals, over the course of thirteen amazing and engaging tracks, to say quite a lot and to eloquently drive her message home. She co-wrote on eight of the thirteen tracks and on some cuts she unabashedly lays her soul bare, no longer afraid of the haters.
Rimes says, “In this album, I'm speaking more honestly than I ever have, from the truth and pain and love in my life, and hoping that people connect with those emotions.” Seriously, if you really listen, I don't see how you can help but connect. How many times have we heard someone say, in reference to a country song, “they are singing my life”? That is where this album shines, Rimes is not merely sympathetic, she is totally empathetic, so she is not only singing her life, but my life and your life and so on and so on.
When you listen to the soulful “What Have I Done”, you definitely sense the pain she feels and her angst for the sorrow she was a party to and when she covers the Missy Higgins song, “Where I Stood”, her voice is absolutely mesmerizing and you can feel the heartbreak all around.
I tend to favor the ballads but I have to admit I hit replay quite a few times on the title track and “God Takes Care of Your Kind” got my toes involuntarily tappin' but if I had to choose one up-tempo tune as my favorite from this album, it would probably be “Bottle”. As always, I'm a sucker for the banjo but although the banjo reeled me in on this track, it was the lyrics that caused me to hit replay. In fact, the writing on the entire album is excellent and on these last two tracks I mentioned, you may not even realize the melody belies the lyrics until you really listen to the songs.
Vocally I think Rimes effortlessly soars beyond perfection on “A Waste Is A Terrible Thing To Mind”, and, quite honestly, I also love the title because it's such a clever play on words. I think this just might be my favorite track but I have to say
that the entire album was so well written, choosing just one song was really difficult.
The final track on the album is a beautifully poignant ballad. In the“cut by cut” Rimes says, “The beginning of the album, 'Spitfire,' has the angry wish to untie my tongue and lash out. But [“Who We Really Are”] is how I wanted to end the
album, with the realization that it's not that cut and dry. The right words don't always exist.”
The first time I saw her in concert she was a very young girl whose magnificent voice enabled her to deliver emotional lyrics that belied her life experience. Fast forward through seventeen years and she still has that same incredible voice only now the emotions that deliver the songs are all the more powerful because they come from deep within her own personal experience. She has grown into a very beautiful, sophisticated young woman whose talent quotients are off the charts but personally, I hope Rimes continues to be a little“spitfire” for a very long time.
“This album is a peek into my world; who I am, what I've gone through, what my emotions are. It's an intimate conversation between myself and whom ever is listening. I hope I'm saying things that are hard for others to express. It certainly took me a lot of work to get to this point. And it's still easier to sing these thoughts than it is to say them out loud. The intimacy in my music is just beginning.” LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes - Editorial
LeAnn Rimes - Greatest Hits
LeAnn Rimes - This Woman
