This Woman

1	I Want to With You 3:18
2	You Take Me Home 3:55
3	Something's Gotta Give 3:56
4	Won't Be Lonely Long 3:24
5	Nothin' 'Bout Love Makes Sense 2:57
6	Probably Wouldn't Be This Way 3:37
7	The Weight of Love 4:04
8	With You 3:42
9	I Got It Bad 3:28
10	I Dare You 3:43
11	When This Woman Loves a Man 4:02
12	Some People 3:56

Barnes & Noble

It's always unsettling when an artist as young as LeAnn Rimes talks about getting back to her roots, but that's the word she's spreading about This Woman. The title alone is a reminder that she has traveled some distance from the teen waif who stunned everyone with the preternatural soul informing her Patsy Cline–influenced "Blue" debut. As she's matured, she's ventured into contemporary pop, country-pop, and R&B waters, not altogether unconvincingly but minus the richness of her early, tradition-rooted work. This Woman corrects that oversight. Sounding and phrasing more like Wynonna with every passing album, Rimes kicks off this reclamation project with a suggestive, slinky bit of southern soul, "I Want to with You," its grinding groove accentuated by wailing electric slide guitars and soaring, gospel-style choruses supporting the vocalist as she declaims the sultry lyrics as if she were channeling Naomi Judd's firstborn. From there, though, she settles into some solid contemporary country material, such as the driving "You Take Me Home"; the pulsating story of a gal bursting at the seams waiting for Mr. Right, "Something's Gotta Give," fired by jittery fiddles and pounding percussion; and two winsome tear-jerkers that bring out the best in her interpretive skills: "Probably Wouldn't Be This Way," about a woman trying to find something positive in the aftermath of losing her one true love, features a thoughtful, sensitive vocal set against a mournful backdrop; it's followed by "The Weight of Love," a tear-stained reminiscence of one good love gone south that finds Rimes's whisper-to-a-scream reading matched in intensity by the band's ensemble roar. Clearly energized, and reining in the excesses of her pop outings, Rimes may want to consider making more such trips back to the future, if that's where she can find her heart again. David McGee

All Music Guide

LeAnn Rimes has taken so many twists and turns in her career that it's hard to know what to expect whenever she delivers a new record. Is she returning to the neo-traditional country that made her a star at 14? Is she singing country-pop, or trying to be a straight-up mainstream pop singer? Since she's dabbled in all of these styles since her 1996 debut, Blue, suffering upheavals in her management and label in the process, it's hard to tell exactly where Rimes fits into either country or pop music in 2005, nearly a full decade after her commercial breakthrough. It's even harder to tell if Rimes has a clear musical identity outside of her powerhouse voice and a desire to keep selling records. As long as she kept making solid records, this vagueness didn't really matter, but her 2002 stab at dance-pop and adult contemporary pop arrived too late and was too awkward to succeed, which was quite a surprise after her lithe crossover with the Coyote Ugly soundtrack. Its successor, 2005's This Woman, is a corrective measure, stripping away the sexiness and post-Britney pretensions of Twisted Angel and steering toward the middle ground between adult contemporary and contemporary country. This is territory that Shania Twain and Faith Hill abandoned as they became slick, sexy superstars, and it suits Rimes well. The tunes on This Woman are on a smaller, friendlier scale than those on Come On Over or Breathe, but their modesty is appealing, particularly because the melodies are sturdy and the production is polished without being too glossy. There are no knockouts here, but on a song-for-song basis, This Woman is her strongest album yet, not least because it's the record where Rimes sounds the most comfortable, where she's not yearning for pop hits or aping her idols. This is a sound and format that fits LeAnn Rimes, and with any luck she'll continue in this vein for a while -- but given her track record, it's reasonable to doubt that she will, so enjoy This Woman while it rides the country and adult pop charts. Stephen Thomas Erlewine