Martina

1	So Magical 3:52
2	She's a Butterfly 4:00
3	City of Love 2:59
4	This One's for the Girls 4:04
5	How Far 3:57
6	Reluctant Daughter 2:36
7	Wearing White 2:51
8	When You Love Me 4:32
9	In My Daughter's Eyes 3:14
10	Learning to Fall 3:57
11	God's Will 5:50
12	Over the Rainbow Live 3:34

Barnes & Noble

It's been four years since Martina McBride released an all-new studio album, and on this eponymous long-player, she sounds energized by the message of female empowerment in her songs. The album's celebratory tone is aptly expressed in the infectious "This One's for the Girls," an homage to self-reliance and fearlessness in love that's driven by pounding drums and waves of heavy rock guitar. An earnest mid-tempo shuffle, "She's a Butterfly" trumpets the moment a girl blossoms into a young lady, full of hope and promise, the song's choruses given ballast by a B3 and swirling, Beatles-like strings. Sprightly, finger-picked acoustic guitar lines, insistent fiddle quotes, a taste of moaning pedal steel, and some discreet background vocals from Vince Gill constitute the mise en scène for "Wearing White," a "you go, girl" tribute to a woman who sowed considerable wild oats in her youth but has finally found her match. "My Daughter's Eyes," a beautiful country ballad defined by piano and lush strings, is a touching sonnet addressed to the daughter who gives her mother a reason to believe. The one male who figures prominently here is a crippled boy being raised by a single mom working two jobs, as related in the soaring ballad "God's Will." How appropriate, then, that this exercise in good tidings should end with a bravura live rendition of the venerable ode "Over the Rainbow" -- its winsome query of "Why, oh why can't I?" is answered in the affirmative by the can-do songs preceding it. In advancing the power of positive thinking, Martina makes for a most compelling position paper. David McGee

All Music Guide

One of the greatest voices in country music today and reigning CMA female vocalist of the year shines on this, her sixth album. McBride's previous catalog of music has always been intelligent and full of emotion, and these 12 tracks are decidedly no different. True to womanhood, Martina embodies the spirit of being female in every role. McBride sings about a bride-to-be in the guitar-strumming "Wearing White," as a daughter in the gospel-infused bluegrass "Reluctant Daughter," as a mom in the affecting ballad "In My Daughter's Eyes," as a confident lover in the smooth and gentle "When You Love Me," and as a friend in the soft, midtempo "She's a Butterfly." Other standouts include a delicious reinterpretation of "Over the Rainbow" as only McBride could sing it and the dramatic "How Far" in the style of her 1997 hit, "Whatever You Say." In a lush career that now spans ten years, Martina McBride always has something new to offer with immeasurable artistry. ~ Maria Konicki Dinoia, All Music Guide

Billboard

Versatile, soulful and passionate, McBride has never been better. Ray Waddell