The Love Songs

1	When I Said I Do / Lisa Hartman-Black 4:33
2	You Made Me Feel 4:33
3	Something That We Do 4:38
4	Our Kind of Love / Carolyn Dawn Johnson 4:06
5	My Imagination 3:53
6	Like the Rain 4:15
7	You Know It All 4:24
8	That Something in My Life 2:55
9	One Emotion 2:51
10	Half the Man 3:04
11	Easy for Me to Say / Lisa Hartman-Black 5:33
12	I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song 2:34

Barnes & Noble

Clint Black isn't the first artist to offer a different spin on a greatest-hits package by reworking some of his old blockbusters instead of packaging the originals together, but he may well have set a new standard for such endeavors with The Love Songs. Black's vocals this time out prove considerably more mature than the first time around. The lilting beauty of "You Made Me Feel" is enhanced by Black's assured reading, which is tinged with the subtlest of blues and goosed along by a gently swinging small combo groove; Bryan Austin's atmospheric finger-picked acoustic guitar lead and Black's own harmonica fills add a rustic feel to the simple, sensible sentiments of "Something That We Do"; employing a more muscular, rock-inflected sonic palette dotted with fiddles, pedal steel, electric guitar, and cannon-shot drums, Black does his part on "That Something in My Life" with a forceful declaration of his heart's affection for a significant other. "When I Said I Do," the luscious, orchestrated, heart-tugging (and Grammy-nominated) duet with his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, sets the romantic tone for what's to come, while the closing number is an imaginative arrangement of Jim Croce's "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song," featuring winsome dobro punctuations and electric piano interjections. No stranger to honest, heartfelt music, Black has done himself and his fans proud with these fresh takes on that old feeling. David McGee

All Music Guide

Despite its appearance, Clint Black's 2007 release The Love Songs isn't a compilation, it's a collection of new versions of Black's biggest and best romantic material -- supplemented by a cover of Jim Croce's "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" and a duet with his wife, Lisa Hartman-Black, on "When I Said I Do" -- all given a softer, slicker spin than their original incarnations. As should be expected with any album bearing cover art by pop art icon Peter Max, the arrangements on The Love Songs have the country elements sanded out -- the fiddles and steel guitars on "Our Kind of Love" are the exception that proves the rule ("That Something in My Life" has similar instrumentation but is too slow and lazy to sound country) -- leaving behind an album that sounds so pop that it could not only slip comfortably onto adult contemporary radio, it makes Carrie Underwood seem like hard country. For those still holding on to fond memories of the Clint Black of "Killin' Time," this is bound to be a disappointment, but on its own terms The Love Songs does its job well: it sustains a romantic atmosphere and it's delivered cleanly and professionally by Black, which may be enough for fans looking for mood music and nothing more. Stephen Thomas Erlewine