Knock on the Sky

1	Mine All Mine 3:57
2	I'm Lit 3:26
3	Man Goin' Down 5:02
4	Get Over Yourself 3:25
5	Rush 3:27
6	I Wish I Were the Rain 4:30
7	Repent 4:21
8	Everybody Wants You 4:46
9	Now 4:18
10	All Over You 4:30
11	The First to Let Go 4:27
12	Turn Me On 3:24
13	Keep Me 24:02
14	[Untitled Hidden Track] 0:06

Barnes & Noble

Picking up where they left off on their adventurous Christmas album, Brand New Year (yes, an adventurous Christmas album), the Osborn sisters and producer Dann Huff come back firing a bone-rattling shot of industrial-strength music that references country but is clearly informed by the techno-influenced pop of artists such as Britney Spears. The au courant production on Knock On the Sky features a dizzying array of musical effects, phased and layered vocals, and some grandiose, Beatles-like production touches -- the cellos in the captivating "Keep Me" could easily have been sampled from a mid-'60s Fab Four recording. SHeDAISY back up the lush surroundings with plenty of substance. Kristyn Osborn co-wrote all of the disc's thoughtful songs, which largely focus on relationships, offering accounts of heartache, euphoria, and rage -- your average, everyday roller coaster of emotions. Woe unto the man who's the subject of the merciless skewering in the scalding screed titled "Get Over Yourself," as combustible a blend of spiteful lyrics and roiling music as the country market has seen in a while. The stomp and sass of "Man Goin' Down" drive the most suggestive narrative the sisters have ever advanced, but its rocking edge casts it more in the mold of a daunting challenge than a salacious come-on. Even tender tales of abiding affection such as "Rush" and "All Over You" are told over taut, driving grooves. The whole affair comes to a rather baroque end on "Keep Me," on which shifting time signatures and orchestral flourishes augment a breathless lyrical plea for commitment. High-energy, high-octane throughout, Knock On the Sky is the Jolt Cola of mainstream country: Drink it up, and you'll be bouncing off the walls for the duration. David McGee

All Music Guide

The exuberance of SHeDAISY practically leaps off this disc, thanks to a dream marriage of savvy, catchy writing, crisp instrumental backup, and inspired solo and harmony singing. There's a sense that the session veterans called in for this one went above and beyond what was expected; on "Man Goin' Down" and the vamp at the end of "Get Over Yourself," for instance, Steve Brewster is all over the drums, never losing the beat yet never lapsing into formulaic patterns. There's imagination in the production too, with a very effective switch to an old-timey radio episode on the bridge of "I'm Lit," and a canny decision to record the vocals, like the fiddle accompaniment, with minimal sweetening on the power ballad "Rush." Which, of course, points to the fact that SHeDAISY has achieved such a fusion of stadium gesture and reference to tradition that they can put a power ballad into a country framework and make it work. In fact, cinematic touches -- muffled voices, a touch of thunder before the melodramatic "Repent," the "I Am the Walrus" strings that gliss from hoedown to hi-tech effect on "Everybody Wants You" -- turn Knock on the Sky into a concept album; despite essentially mundane lyrics, the music and vision is enough to spirit the listener far from the farm toward more visionary places. Robert Doerschuk