Album Review: Martina McBride - Eleven
By: Matt Bjorke
There’s never been any doubt of Martina McBride’s vocal ability. In fact, it’s a great reason for why she became a country star to begin with. And while she’s gained a “rep” for being somebody who will sing social issue types of songs, she’s really always sang songs that just touched upon life issues and if that life issue happened to be about domestic violence (“Independence Day,” “A Broken Wing”), child abuse (“Love’s The Only House”) depression (“When God Fearing Women Get The Blues”) or cancer (current single “I’m Gonna Love You Through It), so be it. It’s just the kind of songs she’s always been drawn to and to be honest, I often love these “mini-movie” songs too.
On Eleven (which is Martina’s eleventh album and released on 10/11/11 (11/11/11 is a non-release day Friday) Martina sings songs like those “mini move songs,” like the albums second single “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” and the gorgeous “When You Love A Sinner.” The rest of the songs on the primarily deal with matters of the heart, from the romantic remake of Train’s “Marry Me” (which is smartly turned into a duet with Pat Monahan, Train’s lead-singer and songwriter) to the Beatles-like “Broken Umbrella” to spirited ballad “You Can Get Your Lovin’ Right Here,” one of six songs Martina co-wrote on the album. There’s even some more ‘organic’ sounding songs like Top 20 lead single “Teenage Daughters” and “Long Distance Lullaby” mixed in with what may be the most “pop” sounding song of her career outside benchmark single “I Love You.” That song is album opener “One Night,” a song co-written with Claude Kelly and Tommy Lee James, both no strangers to pop chart success as Kelly has written hit songs for/with Bruno Mars, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Jessie J and many, many more while James has co-written songs for people like Aussie pop star Delta Goodrem, The Pussycat Dolls, and 98 Degrees along with writing “Bleed Red” and hit songs for Gary Allan, Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw and Reba among others.
While the eleven songs on the album (notice the Eleven theme?) contain songs from various part of the country music landscape, one never gets the sense that Martina McBride would ever consider leaving the genre, even if she really could record a full-on Celine Dion-style pop standards album and this allows Martina to showcase her penchant for great songs and, now, we’re seeing that she has something to say too. In the end what we have is a strong debut album for Republic Records Nashville, a record which should help her get more radio success and build upon her already Hall of Fame-worthy career.
Buy: Amazon mp3 album | Amazon CD Album
READER'S COMMENTS
Trish says:
Posted: Thursday, May 17, 2012
Surprised it got a positive review as the album has been a total flop since its release. None of the singles released so far have reached top 5 on the country charts. Her latest single Marry Me is such a disaster that it looks like it will be dropped as it hasn't ever reached the top 40. Add to this terrible album sales and the fact that Martina no longer headlines at arenas and has been relegated to theatre show - sad!
Sherrie says:
Posted: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
I love it! My favorites are Gonna Love you Through It, Broken Umbrella, Whata Gonna Do, and Long Distance Lullabye. The Album is solid from top to bottom.
Lloyd says:
Posted: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
I've listened to this a couple times now. I like all the songs with "Teenage Daughters" being my least favorite. Not sure what they plan to release as radio singles but I would love to see what a song like 'Broken Umbrella" does on radio. Of all the cuts, it's the song I can't get out of my head. I also really like When You Love a Sinner and Long Distance Lullaby.
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