Cry

Now a massive star in the country-pop milieu following the mega-platinum success of her Breathe album, Mississippi-born Faith Hill also appears to have scooped every US music award known to man (and woman) over the past year.

While she has the requisite airbrushed looks and a powerful voice to match, this is no more country music than that of her main rival, Shania Twain. The inclusion of the occasional twangy guitar and down-home fiddle are presumably token forays into the genre to keep the Nashville brigade happy.

Apart from that voice (which sounds like a cross between Cher and Sheryl Crow) Hill’s real talent appears to lie in choosing appropriate songs as vehicles for her undoubted vocal talents. On Breathe she bravely tackled Bruce Springsteen’s relatively obscure, ‘If I Should Fall Behind’ with creditable results – here she settles for a small team of Nashville songwriters to provide the material.

The title track is a punchy power-ballad written by Beth Nielsen Chapman while another slow-burning show-stopper, ‘When The Lights Go Down’ is penned by the crack team of Wiseman/Steele/Rutherford.

Of the more upbeat soulful numbers here, ‘Unsaveable’ and ‘One’ were co-written by Bekka Bramlett daughter of the legendary backing-singer-to-the-stars, Bonnie Bramlett. Hill veers successfully into R’n’B territory on Alicia B Moore’s ‘If You’re Gonna Fly Away’. On the downside the spoken word ‘Beautiful’ comes across as a mite cheesy as well as sounding a little close melodically to Sting’s ‘Fields of Gold’

The production and playing is impeccable throughout; musicians include guitarist Michael Landau, bass-player Leland Sklar and Pet Sounds saxophonist Jim Horn among others providing a perfect backdrop to Hill’s vocal sheen.