Martina McBride Album: “Evolution”

When I first heard "Broken Wing" on the radio, little hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I had chills. That is what Martina McBride's powerful voice does to me. Not only has she chosen beautiful, intellegent songs for this album (an evolution from past works) she knows exactly how to interpret them. Yes, she can belt out a chorus like no one else, like on "Be That Way" and "A Broken Wing" but she shows wonderful range and lets the song tell the story as in "Wrong Again" and "Whatever You Say". Her ballad cross-over "Valentine" proves that this country singer can not be stereotyped and stands in a class by herself. I would highly reccommend this cd to anyone who likes to feel their music in the pit of their stomach.

Martina has the most incredible voice ever and this cd allows her to demonstrate her powerful voice more than any other she's recorded. Its full of awsome songs like "A Broken Wing," "Valentine," "Happy Girl," and "Wrong Again." My very favorate on the cd is "Whatever You Say." Her preformance of that song is beyond describible, its the most amazing thing I've ever heard. Nobody sings like Martina!

After a slightly uneven third effort, Martina McBride returned with EVOLUTION, which managed to capitalize on in spades the promise that she had shown with her sophomore disc THE WAY THAT I AM, and in the process produced an album that nearly matched that creative benchmark. While her first three efforts showcased primarily country music with pop undertones, this album incorporated more pop into the proceedings, with slicker, but far stronger, production values, and ultimately smoothing out alot of the country edges that were in evidence in her previous work. It was still country, but more country-pop than anything else. She still had the knack for catchy hooks, displayed on such tracks as 'Happy Girl', Keeping My Distance', and 'I Don't Want To See You Again', but as with her best work, she manages to temper the lightweight with stone-cold reality. 'A Broken Wing' continues her quest to relay inportant social issues through her work, much like the previous 'Independence Day'. Vocally, she was at her peak, particularly on the aforementioned 'Wing', and especially on the equally commanding 'Whatever You Say'--only Trisha Yearwood matches her vocally in the country genre. It's of interest to note that pop divas Mariah Carey and Celine Dion released albums close to the same time as this project, both(Carey's BUTTERFLY and Dion's LET'S TALK ABOUT LOVE)creative lowpoints for each, while the equally talented and pop-inspired McBride was doing career high work--it's too bad more pop fans didn't seek this out in the wake of such mundane work, because it truly puts her in league with both of those artists.

I originally bought this CD because of Broken Wing. I had seen her perfom the song on a music awards program and the hair literally stood up on the back of my neck! And while I do play Broken Wing over and over and over, Wrong Again, Whatever You Say, Happy Girl, and Valentine are standouts, as well. Truly a keeper!

For true diehard fans, her White Christmas CD is a treasure. If you don't have it, don't walk, run to the store and pick it up. You won't be disappointed!

Martina has one of those voices that bring out real feelings into her music. Just listen to "Whatever You Say" and you will know what I mean. Or listen to the fabulous pop sounding song "Valentine", and you will be a Martina fan for life. The whole CD is filler free (with the exception of the opening "I'm Little But I'm Loud" Little Jimmy Dickens song Martina sang when she was a little girl). Anyway, I think this is her best work by far, even better than her average new CD, Emotion. Go out and get this and you won't be listening to anything else for at least a week!