Comments on: Martina McBride, Shine

By: Jalon Watts

Jalon Watts — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:40:15 +0000

I agree “Sparky!” “LeAnn,” you need to take a chill pill. I mean give me a freaking break, “Shine,” is very enthusiastic, and exciting album! You’re an idiot!!! I LOVE THIS ALBUM! :) :) :)

By: Sparky

Sparky — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:28:24 +0000

I think all of you that are bad mouthing this shine album are silly. This album is great and as the rest of martina’s albums should be treated with respect.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:48:10 +0000

Okay, I’ve listened to “I’m Trying” again and I take back what I said about it. It turns out that I’m really liking it after all. I still don’t like the Diamond Rio/Chely WRight version, but this one fills in what I thought was lacking from theirs. The melody is just so simple that it’s easy to overlook at first.

By: Occasional Hope

Occasional Hope — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:51:45 +0000

““I’m Trying” is the one song on the album that I really like. I agree with Leann that it’s a step up from Waking Up Laughing, and I also agree that this isn’t much of a compliment.”

Me too – and although it’s marginally better overall than Waking Up Laughing, I’m not sure if it would be without ‘I’m Trying’ in the mix. Sunny Side Up is positvely annoying (though to be fair with a title like that I didn’t expect a good song).

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:51:49 +0000

I don’t know, Razor, I’m still in my twenties and I don’t like this. My tastes have changed over the years since I’ve gotten into country music though.

By: Razor X

Razor X — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:28:52 +0000

Maybe I am just getting old and cranky, but it just occurred to me that if she had put out this album 10 or 15 years ago, I probably would have liked it a lot more than I do now.

I think a lot of the appeal of “I’m Trying” is the stripped-down production, as opposed to the “Wall of Sound” approach used on most of the rest of the album.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:24:41 +0000

Good observations Razor. I too wonder what she thinks of her recent output and the fact that it really hasn’t paid off in awhile. Martina did improve upon Diamond Rio’s version of “I’m Trying”, but I guess I’m still not into the song in general, because I still thought it lacked something.

By: Razor X

Razor X — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:21:03 +0000

“I’m Trying” is the one song on the album that I really like. I agree with Leann that it’s a step up from Waking Up Laughing, and I also agree that this isn’t much of a compliment.

I really wonder what Martina honestly thinks about her recent material. She had such a knack for picking out great songs earlier in her career, that I can’t believe that she is unaware of how bland and uninspired her recent output has been. it seems like she’s less interested in making great music than she is of trying to stay at the top of the charts. It’s also interesting to note that her attempts to stay commercially relevant haven’t been that successful.

By: Leeann Ward

Leeann Ward — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:43:05 +0000

I finally had a chance to listen to Martina’s album, yesterday (yay Rhapsody!), and I was pretty uninspired. As everyone else has said, I give her credit for vocal restraint. I was unimpressed by the song selections though. I still long for her choices of the early to mid-nineties.

I can’t think of a single song on the album that I’d purposely play again. There were some that were simply boring while others were okay, but not overly memorable. This is still a step above Waking Up Laughing, which isn’t saying much coming from me.

By: Erik North

Erik North — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:08:12 +0000

Without going into the business of comparing Martina to contemporaries like Trisha Yearwood, I must admit that I’ve had a hard time of really warming up to her material for two reasons: one being that she sometimes sings just a little too loud at inappropriate times; and two, a lot of her material seems to be inoffensive to the point of being dangerously bland.

Maybe this is where I give her more of an opportunity than I’ve done in the past.