Chely Wright : Releases >>
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Definitive Collection >>
Single White Female >>
The hooks are so catchy here, the playing so impeccable, and Chely Wright sings in such an engagingly warm twang (it's reminiscent of the more nuanced singing Reba did when she still had a last name) that you can't help but be disappointed with the results. Virtually every song effervesces with a memorable melody and clever idea, then fizzles. The title track wants to advertise a woman's romantic dreams but fails to mention even one of them. "Unknown" gets a bit more specific, but what it says about its singer is so superficial--she drinks coffee black, she sings when she drives--that unknown is precisely what her character remains. Wright makes the most of this unrevealing material, but you mainly suspect she could do much better. And when you hear her question her faith on the closing "Why Do I Still Want You," you're sure of it. --David Cantwell
The Metropolitan Hotel >>
The centerpiece to this sixth album by soulful country balladeer Chely Wright is "The Bumper of My S.U.V.," a song about the sort of patriotism that runs deeper than partisan sniping and that will therefore likely hit home with listeners on all sides of the political divide. As the album's primary producer and songwriter, Wright takes control of her artistry here, with material that has more depth and a sound that is less polished than what often dominates the airwaves. The narrative ambition of Wright's "The River," which features Vince Gill providing vocal counterpoint, merits comparison with the Bruce Springsteen song of the same title, while the prickly relationship detailed in "Between a Mother and a Child" is too painful not to ring true. Lightening the mood is a romp through Chuck Berry's "C'est La Vie (You Never Can Tell)." With the opening "It's the Song" (written by Bonnie Baker and Katrina Elam), Wright puts the emphasis on the strength of the material, and proceeds to deliver, with a selection devoid of filler. --Don McLeese
Days in Avalon >>
The platinum-selling Richard Marx was a radio staple in the late '80s and early '90s; he's continued to keep his hand in as a songwriter for the likes of 'N Sync ("This I Promise You"). Days in Avalon, his first album since 1997, isn't likely to change anyone's mind about Marx. But anyone who has enjoyed him in the past will appreciate this disc, whose only real surprise is the closing duet with Alison Krauss, "Straight from My Heart." Elsewhere, Marx indulges his passion for melodramatic storytelling (remember "Hazard"?) on "Boy Next Door," the tale of a Midwestern teenager who goes on a shooting spree. --Rickey Wright
Never Love You Enough >>
The title tune that kicks off Chely Wright's fourth album is a typically overwrought country-pop love pledge, but on other tunes Wright cuts masterfully to love's twisted chase with anguished musical vignettes of romantic ambiguity. Women who aren't loved enough ("Jezebel," "Deep Down Low"), women who are loved too much ("Not As in Love"), women who've lost their men ("Her"), and women who want their men to get lost ("While I Was Waiting") are all topics of the day. Yet Wright brings similar emotional authority to a pair of songs--"One Night in Las Vegas" and "For the Long Run"--that celebrate the quiet, hard-fought intimacy of long-term commitment. To describe Wright, who wrote or cowrote 5 of these 12 cuts, as a country diva with a graduate degree in marital counseling is a compliment. For the most part, she delivers these plaints of romantic anguish and (occasional) serenity with conviction and understated grace. --Bob Allen
Let Me In >>
The Bumper of My S.U.V. >>
Woman in the Moon >>
Everything >>
Right in the Middle of It >>
