LeAnn Rimes

1	Crazy 2:53
2	Don't Worry 3:30
3	Leavin' on Your Mind 2:30
4	Faded Love 3:50
5	Born to Lose 3:19
6	Cryin' Time 3:10
7	She's Got You 3:15
8	I Fall to Pieces 2:54
9	Your Cheatin' Heart 2:40
10	Lovesick Blues 2:46
11	Me and Bobby McGee 4:35
12	Big Deal 3:06

Barnes & Noble

Apart from the rocking finale (and radio-ready single), "Big Deal," the song selection is the story on the latest by country music's most decorated teen. While her platinum peers are casting country music as slick pop, Rimes remains true to the classic sensibility that's made her work so compelling from the first notes of BLUE, her debut, to the last notes here. Fully half of the dozen cuts on this collection are Patsy Cline covers, if you consider that Cline recorded Hank Williams's "Your Cheatin' Heart." And yes, "Crazy," "Faded Love," and "I Fall To Pieces" are exquisite -- both in the lush, Owen Bradley-inspired production flourishes and in LeAnn's preternaturally wise readings of these signature songs. Rimes, no stranger to crossover success, makes country go pop not by dismissing the tradition, but by taking into account the accrued history of the material. She delivers a swaggering version of "Your Cheatin' Heart" that is less about Hank than Joni James, who had a major pop hit with that same song in 1953. Similarly, in what may well be the most extraordinary vocal performance of her young career, she belts her way, in bluesy, growling fashion, through "Cryin' Time," filtering Buck Owens through Ray Charles and then copping some trademark phrasing from Trisha Yearwood, a country diva with a growing pop fan base. This is an homage for the ages, fashioned with reverence and respect, but Rimes's envelopment in the lyric gives it the force of individual statement. She does that time and again on LEANN RIMES, bridging pop and country ever so subtly, evoking and invoking the giants who have done it best, and then putting her own stamp on the style. Sounding right as rain, LeAnn Rimes is in her own league. David McGee

All Music Guide

Essentially, LeAnn Rimes is a covers album, with one new song ("Big Deal") tacked onto the end, which makes it a return to her roots -- which, in turn, means that it's sort of a salute to her main influence, Patsy Cline. Rimes tackles no less than five songs from Cline's 12 Greatest Hits, plus "Lovesick Blues," which Cline also recorded. It's a tricky situation for a singer pegged as a Cline soundalike with her first hit single, "Blue." If those comparisons bother Rimes, it's impossible to tell from her performance, since she sings these six songs exactly like Cline does. As it turns out, imitation is a crutch Rimes uses quite often, since she mimics Janis Joplin on "Me and Bobby McGee" and pretty much uses Marty Robbins as a guide vocal on "Don't Worry." Since she has a good voice and these are, by and large, great songs, it's hard to complain -- given the best set of songs of her career, she delivers good, professional performances, stumbling only on "Me and Bobby McGee" with Joplin-like histrionics. So, LeAnn Rimes winds up being one of her better efforts, even if her vocals are fairly mannered and the arrangements are fairly predictable. But the most curious thing about this covers album is that Rimes turns in her best performance on the lone new track. She sounds loose, confident and exciting on "Big Deal," and even more importantly, she never sounds like one of her idols -- she sounds like herself. And since it comes at the end of the record, you can't help but wish she'd recorded an album of new, pure country songs as good as "Big Deal" instead of a collection of covers, no matter how well she sang those covers. Stephen Thomas Erlewine