Martina McBride “Everlasting” Album Review

Prime Cuts: Suspicious Minds, If You Don't Know Me By Now, To Know Him is to Love Him 

Has Martina McBride blunted her competitive edge?  With the incessant influx of younger artists lining up for radio airplay slots, many of yesterday's stars are already losing their ability to put a foot hold on the charts.  Instead of standing up to the fierce competition with a stellar hit studded album of her own, McBride has retreaded in releasing an album of covers.  At the height of her career, she made a similar move when she released an album of covers, "Timeless," some ten years ago.  Though it did pay off handsomely with "Timeless" selling over a million copies, but times have changed.  McBride isn't exactly the hottest real estate as far as hit singles are concerned.  Over the last few years, McBride has been bouncing around labels and her last top 10 single was 2006's "Anyway." Further, traditionally, a covers album isn't really an arsenal of sure-fire hits, so what will "Everlasting" do for McBride's career remains to be seen.

Commerce aside, "Everlasting" is quite different from "Timeless" on four premises.  First, while "Timeless" finds McBride covering country classics exclusively, "Everlasting" finds McBride tackling songs from the pop and soul genres.  Second, while "Timeless" was a self-produced effort, "Everlasting" finds her working with the legendary Don Was (Rolling Stones, Carlene Carter, Bonnie Raitt).  Third, "Timeless" was pretty pedestrian and colorless as far as production goes, but with "Everlasting" Was allows McBride to experiment with boogie woogie blues, Motown deep funk and soulful soaring ballads.  Fourth, while 'Timeless" was quite a shoddy affair that featured lots of wooden deliveries that almost came close to professional karaoke, "Everlasting" finds a more seasoned veteran who is able to  weave her own stories into the songs she sings.

Before we delve into a closer look at the songs, it's important to say a word about the album's various permutations.  If you buy "Everlasting" at Target, you will be rewarded with 2 additional cuts ("That's How Strong My Love is" and "Baby What You Want Me to Do").  But the greatest buy is still with iTunes: the online Apple store also gives you two bonus tracks ("By Your Side" and "Perfect").  And truth be told, McBride's rendition of Sade's "By Your Side" blows the word "excellent" out of the waters.  With the album proper, "If You Don't Know Me By Now" is sublime.  Here McBride takes her time to caress and squeeze out every ounce of pain on this tortured Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes original.  Though Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt have taken "To Know Him is to Love Him" to number one, it was originally a soul standard by the Teddy Bears.  McBride's dreamy rendition brings out the dizziness of romance that mesmerizes.

On Elvis' "Suspicious Minds," McBride gorgeously fills in the crevices of the King's jerky original.  However, one is disappointed with McBride's rendition of Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted."  In many ways McBride has reverted back to her "wooden" reading; with her versatile soaring vocals she could have stretched out some of the notes to place her own stamp on it.  But she does jam well with Kelly Clarkson on a funky garage-feel version of "In the Basement" and Gavin DeGraw (who sounds like Aaron Neville) adds the right vocal contrast to their duet "Bring It on Home to Me."

Precisely because many of these classics have withstood the test of time, "Everlasting" is the type of record you can listen to from beginning to end.  And these songs so catchy you can't help but sing along with them.  Regardless of how strategic this album is to McBride's career, this truly is a labor of love that deserves to be cherished.

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