A Wonderful Compilation

Faith Hill has given her fans a wonderful compilation of her work over the course of her career. Unfortunately, there is no way to get all of her great songs on one album. And some of her best songs were never released as singles so I'd urge any person who is new to her work to purchase her other albums. You won't be disappointed because each album is unique and shows her growth as an artist and the complex soul of this artist. - janets98 "janets98" (Tennessee)

It's hard to imagine a more schizophrenic album than Fireflies, but Faith Hill, the comely pride of Star, Mississippi, had a lot of different factions to please.

There's the country set, furious about the L.A. excess of 2002's Cry, as ravaged a pop album as ever made. Then there's the club set, which actually mistook Cry for music, and wanted more. Finally, there's Hill herself, still bruised from the critical drubbing the last album got, and obviously feeling the need to prove herself anew, going brunette to show her transformation.

The bad news about Fireflies is that the all-out country songs--the autobiographical "Mississippi Girl," which practically begs forgiveness for Cry, and the cartoonish "Dearly Beloved," a hoedown ditty about a shotgun wedding--are embarrassing attempts to show that the Dixified diva hasn't gotten above her raising. Then, two other offerings--Darrell Scott's preachy protest number "We've Got Nothing But Love to Prove" and the beautiful torch ballad "Paris"--are both lyrical head-scratchers, and find the artist floundering as to who she is and what she's about.

Where Hill knowingly flexes her muscle is in tackling three complex, literate songs by alt-folkie Lori McKenna--the title track (about the power of dreams), "Stealing Kisses" (about reevaluating life choices), and "If You Ask" (about living with a substance abuser). Hill gives these performances nuanced readings that say buckets more about her own life than "Mississippi Girl" could ever convey, and point to an emotional reservoir Hill is just beginning to tap. Here's hoping she goes back to that well again and again. --Alanna Nash

Faith Hill finally owns up to what we knew all along. She may be from deep-dish Mississippi, but she isn't a country singer, and never has been. This babe's a diva now. And, as she says in her best Diana Ross voice on "Free," "There ain't nothin' I can do about it." But what she could exercise some control over, as the coproducer of her fifth studio album, is the quality and style of her particular brand of über-pop, which on Cry considerably ratchets up the noise factor from 1999's Breathe. The songs, many written by tunesmiths long working in Nashville, often come stocked with meaningful messages, i.e. the emptiness of addiction ("If You're Gonna Fly") or the momentary connection with a loved one who has passed on ("You're Still Here"). Yet Hill and company (longtime producers Byron Gallimore and Dann Huff, in conjunction with Marti Frederiksen) obviously think the best way to make an R&B/pop record is to build a huge, airless production around screeching guitars, wall-rattling drums, and Big Mama choirs. The singer herself may be, indeed, turning out her best vocals ever. But the album itself is a self-conscious mess--a big, wallowing cacophony of sound that leaves the listener numb. In the end, it's a miserable failure. This chanteuse's R&B just ain't got no soul. -- Alanna Nash

First album since 1999's seven-times-platinum, three time Grammy winner Breathe. This enhanced CD includes a 'making of the video' feature, links to the 'Cry' video and exclusive content.

After immeasurable success in the U.S., Faith Hill finally comes to Europe, and There You'll Be is a sort of catch-up for the best bits we may have missed along the way (or, in other words, a greatest hits collection for the uninitiated). A dozen songs which map the path of the Georgia singer, it includes the massive hit for which she has come to be known over here--"There You'll Be," from the Pearl Harbor soundtrack--together with some pop anthems like "The Way You Love Me (Love to Infinity Mix)." However, the style she delivers most convincingly is that of her roots in country, with "Let Me Let Go", "Piece of My Heart," and "You Give Me Love" from the earlier albums being the clear highlights of this collection. -- Gunther Matejka


Exclusive import only best of collection includes two tracks unavailable on the Euro pressing, 'The Way You Love Me (Love To Infinity Remix)' & 'If I Should Fall Behind'. Other tracks include, 'There You'll Be', 'This Kiss (Pop Radio Version)', 'Breathe (Tin Tin Out Remix)', 'The Way You Love Me', 'Let Me Let Go', 'Piece Of My Heart', 'If My Heart Had Wings (Single Version)', 'There Will Come A Day', 'Love Will Always Win', 'My Wild Frontier', 'You Give Me Love', 'Somewhere Down The Road (From Princess Of Egypt O.S.T.), 'Over The Rainbow (From For Our Children Too O.S.T.)' & 'Breathe (Pop Remix)'.

From the suggestive series of photos in the CD's packaging to the aerobicized dance-floor workouts within, Faith Hill refuses to concede an inch of crossover dominance to Shania Twain. Except for a seductive duet with husband Tim McGraw on "Let's Make Love" and an occasional pinch of fiddle or steel guitar, there's little here to characterize Hill as a country artist. As pop, the results range from pretty ("Breathe," "Love Is a Sweet Thing") to pretty slight ("I Got My Baby," "If My Heart Had Wings") to borderline inane ("Bringing Out the Elvis," the voyeuristic twist of "The Way You Love Me"). Though Hill's version of Bruce Springsteen's "If I Should Fall Behind" is admirably understated, too much of the album substitutes surface dazzle for emotional depth. --Don McLeese

That Faith Hill would increase the pop elements of her music doesn't come as a surprise. After all, she's a youthful, vivacious woman plenty capable of gaining the mass appeal mined by fellow female country artists Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, and Deana Carter. What is surprising about Hill's fourth album is how she brings new depth to her songs as well as a fresher, more pop-based sound. Instead of trying to out-sing Rimes or out-dance Twain, she works with producers Dann Huff and Byron Gallimore to create a distinctive country-pop style that is as mature as it is entertaining. As her massive crossover hit "This Kiss" proves, Hill and her collaborators know how to make the most of her limited voice and exuberant personality. The album has plenty of songs that use her talents, including the initial smash hit. -- Michael McCall

Country Music Magazine:
It's the sound of a woman who wants to be a pop diva in the same league with Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain and Sheryl Crow. It's the sound of someone aiming for the over-the-top, music-swelling, tonsil-baring moment without much concern for subtlety or country music.

There's nothing on IT MATTERS TO ME as brash as her country take on the rock classic "Piece Of My Heart." Otherwise, Faith Hill's second album sounds like her first--twangy country with working-class heart, a sassy voice reminiscent of Loretta Lynn, and a sense of social relevance learned from Reba McEntire. Best of all, Hill still cuts across a range of styles, refusing to be tied down to any one of the sub-genres her influences might suggest. "Bed Of Roses" and "You Will Be Mine" are assertive and rocking numbers about, respectively, keeping a lothario at bay and chasing a guy who's too shy to make the first move. On them, Hill's big southern voice is matched by jangling electric guitars that wouldn't be out of place on a Bruce Springsteen album. When it opens, "A Man's Home Is His Castle" could, in fact, be a piano ballad about one of Springsteen's heroic blue-collar losers, but as it swells into a studio pop arrangement, it turns out this particular loser is an abused wife who's about to buy a gun; this is the kind of reality that doesn't impose itself on mainstream country albums too often. "A Room In My Heart," on the other hand, shows an affinity for classic country-pop balladry with its beautifully slow chorus. "Let's Go To Vegas" is a quickie wedding proposal, which--depending on who's making it--could be the kind of mistake that'll get you into a mid-life crisis before you're 25, or the kind of crazy hunch that could snap you right out of one. So far in her bright career, Faith Hill has shown the kind of clearheadedness and surefootedness that if she asked you, you'd be a fool not to take the chance. -- J. M. Zuurbier (Canada)

Faith Hill's debut album is a strong collection of songs. Of course her music has changed a lot from this debut, but it's all good. She has yet to make an album I did not like. This one is definately her most traditional country album. The album had a few hit singles, including "Wild One", "Take Me As I Am" and "Piece of My Heart". "But I Will" is a great ballad, but it only reached #35. There's other nice ballads like "Just Aout Now", "Just Around The Eyes" and "I Would Be Stronger Than That", and some uptempos. Overall a nice debut. -- Jake Z "holden84" (Canada)