Whole New You

On her first album of new material in over five years, Shawn Colvin's voice remains a supple, elastic thing, bending notes and phrases to suit her idiosyncratic style. Here, she once again works with producer/guitarist John Leventhal and much of the same cast of musicians that appeared on her Grammy-winning 1996 album A FEW SMALL REPAIRS. Colvin seduces the listener with rich, atmospheric washes of guitar and unabashedly pretty horn and string arrangements, while never obscuring the simple melodic statements that are the songs' foundations.

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On her first album of new material in over five years, Shawn Colvin's voice remains a supple, elastic thing, bending notes and phrases to suit her idiosyncratic style. Here, she once again works with producer/guitarist John Leventhal and much of the same cast of musicians that appeared on her Grammy-winning 1996 album A FEW SMALL REPAIRS. Colvin seduces the listener with rich, atmospheric washes of guitar and unabashedly pretty horn and string arrangements, while never obscuring the simple melodic statements that are the songs' foundations.
Highlights include the feisty, folk-rock title song (decked out with an instantly addictive twangy guitar hook), "Anywhere You Go", whose massed backing vocals and chorus are vaguely, but pleasantly, reminiscent of vintage Motown, and "Bound to You", which recalls RUMORS-era Fleetwood Mac. Listeners who may have been wondering what former New Bohemian Edie Brickell has been up to will be interested to know that she co-wrote this album's country-style (by way of Burt Bacharach, the Beatles, and pop psychedelia) "Roger Wilco".

Rolling Stone (4/12/01, p.141)
- 3 stars out of 5 - "...Colvin's voice drifts through Leventhal's crafted ambient folk - like dream pop that stops just short of heavy snoozing..."

Entertainment Weekly (3/30/01, p.68)
- "...Now that she's on the mommy track, Colvin writes about the impossibility of leaving, much less returning, witha torch....this folk-rock ma is likably set in her ways..." - Rating: B+

Q (5/01, p.104)
- 4 stars out of 5 - "...A treasure....Her constituency is love songs: but they come with such twists.... Colvin still makes most of her contemporaries and younger challengers look like the clod-hoppers they are."

Mojo (4/01, p.103)
- "...Another album of the year....Occupying a niche between pensive Sheryl Crow and pre-jazz Joni Mitchell...her songs slide into your consciousness...working their subtle magic..."

Down Beat (10/01, p.68)
- 4 stars out of 5 - "...There is a feeling of rebirth and renewal....NEW YOU adds another chapter to Colvin's saga..."