Family (LeAnn Rimes album)

Family
Studio album by LeAnn Rimes
Released October 9, 2007
Genre Country
Length 57:07
Label Curb
Producer Dann Huff, Tony Brown, Reba McEntire
LeAnn Rimes chronology
Whatever We Wanna
(2006)		 Family
(2007)		 Lady & Gentlemen
(2011)
Singles from Family
  1. "Nothin' Better to Do"
    Released: September 17, 2007
  2. "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore"
    Released: November 10, 2007
  3. "Good Friend and a Glass of Wine"
    Released: March 15, 2008
  4. "What I Cannot Change"
    Released: August 25, 2008

Family is the ninth studio album by American country recording artist LeAnn Rimes, released October 9, 2007, by Curb Records in the United States. It was produced primarily by musician and record producer Dann Huff, with additional production by Tony Brown and guest vocalist Reba McEntire.

Family is the first album in Rimes' career where she has co-written every song for an album.

The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 74,200 copies in its first week. Upon its release, Family received positive reviews from most music critics, who complimented Rimes' performance and songwriting. It earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, for the album's lead single "Nothin' Better to Do".

Singles

The first single, "Nothin' Better to Do", was released to radio on May 29, 2007 which she was nominated for a Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy for the 50th Grammy Awards, followed by "Good Friend and a Glass of Wine" and "What I Cannot Change," which was nominated for a Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy for the 51st Grammy Awards and went to number one on the Billboard Dance chart.[1]

Reception

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 74,200 copies in the United States.[2] It spent a total of 20 weeks in Billboard 200.

In the United Kingdom, Family debuted at number 31 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Rimes's first album to miss the top 20 of the chart (though not all of her albums were released in the UK).

Critical response

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]
Billboard(favorable)[4]
Blender[5]
The Boston Globe(favorable)[6]
Entertainment WeeklyB[7]
The Guardian[8]
The New York Times(favorable)[9]
Rolling Stone[10]
Slant Magazine[11]
Uncut[12]

Family received positive reviews from most music critics.[13] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 70, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[13] Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four out of five stars and called it "surprisingly far-ranging underneath its soft country-pop veneer [...] a canny blend of the commercial and the confessional".[3] Blender's Jane Dark complimented its "lighthearted genre-hopping", writing that it "suggests nothing so much as a Broadway smash about a restless country star, borrowing from many styles, beholden to none."[5] Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe praised Rimes' songwriting and dubbed Family "the best, most cogent album of her career".[6] Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times complimented her "gentle belting-out" and commented that "the music echoes the fearlessness in the lyrics".[9] Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe called Rimes "a distinctive interpretive singer" and viewed that her songwriting gives the album "the kind of focus and thematic coherence that most Nashville acts can't be bothered with".[11] Keefe cited Family as "among the strongest mainstream country albums of the past several years".[11] Ken Tucker of Billboard gave the album a favorable review and said, "It took personal experience for LeAnn Rimes to get to the point where she could write, record and release Family, the sum of a so-far extraordinary but still young life. But just because it's a personal album doesn't mean it doesn't speak to the masses."[4]

However, Q gave the album two out of five stars and stated "There's little spark, despite her admirable willingness to take chances."[13] Entertainment Weekly's Alanna Nash gave it a B rating and commented that "Rimes displays new maturity in songwriting [...] though too often she lapses into posturing power pop".[7] Adam Sweeting of Uncut criticized its music, writing that the songs "sound like an update of the kind of AOR racket Pat Benatar and Heart were making in the '80s".[12] Dave Simpson of The Guardian noted "A slightly too-smooth production and typically overblown Bon Jovi collaboration", but called it "an album full of swaggering rhythm'n'booze and emotional confessionals that explore a dysfunctional childhood".[8] Despite finding the song "uneven", Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars and cited "Nothin' Better to Do", "Family", and "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" as highlights.[10] Thomas Kintner of The Hartford Courant called Family "a carefully manicured, but still lively assortment that highlights her substantial vocal strengths", and praised Rimes' singing, stating "She is prone to embracing tunes so disposable that they should be beneath her notice, but the melodic richness she showers on even the most lackluster lyrics makes for interesting listening".[14]

Track listing

No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Family"  Rimes, Dean Sheremet, Blair Daly 3:55
2. "Nothin' Better to Do"  Rimes, Sheremet, Darrell Brown 4:26
3. "Fight"  Rimes, Brown, Daly 3:27
4. "Good Friend and a Glass of Wine"  Rimes, Brown, Daly 3:34
5. "Something I Can Feel"  Rimes, Brown, Daly 3:43
6. "I Want You with Me"  Rimes, Sheremet, Daly 3:33
7. "Doesn't Everybody"  Rimes, Sheremet, Brown 3:53
8. "Nothing Wrong" (Duet with Marc Broussard)Rimes, Broussard, Daly 4:22
9. "Pretty Things"  Rimes, Sheremet, Brown 3:45
10. "Upper Hand"  Rimes, Brown, Troy Verges 3:51
11. "One Day Too Long"  Rimes, Sheremet, Brown 3:38
12. "What I Cannot Change"  Rimes, Brown 5:14
Bonus Tracks
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
13. "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" (Duet with Bon Jovi). (From Bon Jovi's Lost Highway)Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Brett James 4:48
14. "When You Love Someone Like That" (Duet with Reba McEntire) (From McEntire's Reba: Duets)Ed Hill, Karyn Rochelle 4:40

Personnel

Credits for Family adapted from Allmusic.[15]

Musicians
Production
  • Derek Bason – engineer
  • Drew Bollman – assistant
  • Tony Brown – producer
  • Mike Butler – engineer
  • Terry Christian – engineer
  • John Coulter – design
  • Richard Dodd – engineer
  • Ben Fowler – engineer
  • Darrell Franklin – A&R
  • Mike "Frog" Griffith – project coordinator
  • Mark Hagen – engineer, overdub engineer
  • Nathaniel Hawkins – hair stylist
  • Nate Hertweck – assistant
  • Dann Huff – producer
  • Scott Kidd – assistant
  • David McClister – photography
  • Reba McEntire – producer
  • Steve Marcantonio – mixing
  • J.C. Monterrosa – assistant
  • John Netti – assistant
  • Justin Niebank – mixing
  • Lowell Reynolds – assistant
  • Troy Surratt – make-up
  • Todd Tidwell – assistant

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2007) Peak
position
Australian Top Country Albums[16] 20
Canadian Albums Chart 33
European Top 100 Albums[17] 100
Swiss Albums Chart[18] 68
UK Albums Chart[19] 31
US Billboard 200[20] 4
US Billboard Top Country Albums[20] 2
US Billboard Top Digital Albums[20] 4

Year-end charts

Chart (2007) Position
US Billboard Top Country Albums[21] 61
Chart (2008) Position
US Billboard Top Country Albums[22] 31

Release history

Country Date
United States October 9, 2007
Australia October 15, 2007

References

  1. ↑ Kevin J. Coyne,"2009 Grammy Nominees" Countryuniverse.net, December 3, 2008
  2. ↑ Harris, Chris (October 17, 2007). Kid Rock's Jesus Overpowers Bruce Springsteen's Magic On Billboard Chart. MTV News. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  3. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (October 2007). "Review: Family - LeAnn Rimes". Allmusic. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  4. 1 2 Tucker, Ken. "LeAnn Rimes: Family". Billboard. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  5. 1 2 Dark, Jane (October 9, 2007). "Family - Blender". Blender. Retrieved on 2011-02-20. Archived December 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. 1 2 Rodman, Sarah (October 9, 2007). "'Blue' no more, Rimes grows up". The Boston Globe. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  7. 1 2 Nash, Alanna (October 19, 2007). "Family Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  8. 1 2 Simpson, Dave (October 5, 2007). "CD: LeAnn Rimes, Family". The Guardian. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  9. 1 2 Sanneh, Kelefa (October 8, 2007). "Critics’ Choice – New CDs". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  10. 1 2 Sheffield, Rob (October 18, 2007). "LeAnn Rimes: Family : Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-07-25. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  11. 1 2 3 Keefe, Jonathan (October 17, 2007). "LeAnn Rimes: Family | Music Review". Slant Magazine. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  12. 1 2 Adam Sweeting (November 2007). "Review: Family". Uncut: 116.
  13. 1 2 3 "Critic Reviews for Family". Metacritic. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  14. ↑ Kintner, Thomas (October 18, 2007). "New On Disc (LeAnn Rimes: Family)". Hartford Courant. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  15. ↑ Credits: Family - LeAnn Rimes. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2011-02-20.
  16. ↑ "Top 20 Country Chart - Australian Record Industry Association". Ariacharts.com.au. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  17. ↑ "LeAnn Rimes Album & Song Chart History". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  18. ↑ Steffen Hung (2009-09-22). "LeAnn Rimes - Family". hitparade.ch. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  19. ↑ "Leann Rimes - Family". Chart Stats. 2007-10-20. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  20. 1 2 3 "Family - LeAnn Rimes". billboard.com. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  21. ↑ "Billboard.BIZ". Billboard.BIZ. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  22. ↑ "Billboard.BIZ". Billboard.BIZ. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
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