Customer Reviews

Single White Female

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am very impressed with Chely's latest album, SWF! Every song is terrific! Half the songs are ballads, but they are beautiful, and the uptempo songs rock! My personal favorites are "It Was," "Some Kind of Something," and "The Fire." You will not be disappointed in this album. It is full of emotion and each song tells a story. It is really fabulous - I listen to it all the time in the car. It is great cruisin' music! I enjoy it more each time I listen to it. Chely's voice is like a lullaby! I loved this one so much that I went out and bought her previous album ("Let Me In") and that one is great, too. Buy this CD!

The first thing I noticed while listening to Chely's new CD was the great slide guitar on the title song, "Single White Female." It's very clever how the song is written in the form of a personals ad. Chely sings "She Went Out For Cigarettes" with a lot of emotion. It's a traditional ballad with very good strong-woman lyrics. The song "Unknown" is a little boring in the arrangements, but it states nicely the feeeling of wanting to share yourself with another. "The Fire" is kind of alterna-country, and a very cool song. Chely does a decent job with her self-penned song "Picket Fences." It doesn't really rise above other songs of its message, though. I liked the background of "The Love That We Lost" more in the version on Chely's "Right In The Middle Of It" album. Still, the lyrics remain nicely different (going through the house to find lost love is a good comparison.)"Rubbin' It In," a song about the whole world seeming to make fun of you because of lost love, is one that many can relate to. Also, it has a good mandolin and acoustic instrumentation. "Some Kind Of Something" is fun, even if it doesn't break ground lyrically. This CD is a fine addition to anyone's collection.

Chely Wright's latest CD "Single White Female" has been a big hit for her. It's moved her toward the mainstream country artists such as Faith Hill, Martina McBride, and Shania Twain. The album is good. The best songs are Single White Female, It Was, The Love That We Lost, and The Fire. There aren't any songs on the album that are really bad, but there are a few that I didn't care for. Overall, this CD is a good buy, especially if you like the modern country. It isn't twangy country music, so if you're looking for that, try another artist. But you can definitely tell that Chely's background is in country as you listen to the music and lyrics of the songs on this album. I recommend this CD to any country music fan of today. Way to go, Chely!

In my humble opinion this CD could have used a change of pace or two (the reason for knocking off 1 star). Don't listen to it if you are feeling down, it may just push you over the edge. I absolutely love the first three tracks, "The Fire", "Rubbin' It In" and "Picket Fences". Chely's passion is apparent in ALL of the tracks and I am impressed with the way she has remained true to her country roots in this time of 'country vs. pop' madness.

This album is wonderful!! This CD encompasses both fast and slow songs wonderfully. The title track is a great "sing a long song"! "She Went Out For Cigarettes" is a touching ballad about a woman who is being taken for granted by her husband. Chely, as always, puts her all into the lyrics. "The Love That We Lost" is as wonderful as the first time she recorded it a few years back. This was a standout song then, and is a standout song now! Another favorite for me is got to be "The Fire". The song is upbeat and fun for everyone. Chely is able to broaden her talents to songwriting for this album as well. Her song "Picket Fences" is a great tale about any single person who enjoys their single status. The song shows that not only is Chely a great singer, but also a great songwriter. I look forward to several more projects from her. I just don't know how it is possible that she can top this CD, but knowing Chely, I know she will!!!

Chely Wright is that rare artist whose voice conveys more than just melody, there's raw emotion behind the words, and a range of emotion that runs the entire gamut from ecstasy to mournful sorrow.

That she earned her first number one single with the title track from this album was both blessing and curse. "Single White Female" was pure country pop, upbeat and quirky, a unique initial offering on an album that grows progressively more complex and introspective with each subsequent song. That MCA followed "Single White Female" by releasing the lyrically strong but folksy, down-tempo "She Went Out for Cigarettes" is almost inexplicable; the two songs are such polar-opposites that their back-to-back pairing on the album is somewhat jarring. There are so many solid songs on this album that it's hard to say what could have happened had the follow-up been one of her more high-energy tracks or one of her more soul-searching ballads.

Thematically, Single White Female is an album about every facet of love, from the awkward beginning stages to the tearful end. The album's true center comes not from the title track, but from the third single released, "It Was".

For those attracted to the album by the title track, "The Fire" comes closest to matching its energy and tone, followed by the radio-friendly "Some Kind of Somethin'". Together with "Single White Female", this trio of peppy songs anchor and invigorate an overall somber ten-track album.

Perhaps the strongest track on the album is the fourth, "Unknown", a slow ballad with a wailing steel guitar accompaniment whose lyrics touch the great fears so many of us share of ending our days alone; Chely's smoky voice has never conveyed more collective pathos. There's also an updated version of her 1996 single, "The Love that We Lost"--which, vocally, is so much stronger than the radio release from her second album that the two songs sound vastly different despite nearly identical musical arrangements. Then there's "Picket Fences", a song laced with tangible irony, regret, and even denial--a trifecta that paint a vivid but sad story of a career-driven persona.

The album ends with the cute but bittersweet "Rubbin' it In", a song about all those little haunting reminders that come after a relationship ends, and the desperate pining of "Why Do I Still Want You".

Both lyrically and vocally, this is an album that strives to make a connection with the listener. For those so attuned, Single White Female is a too-often overlooked emotional journey that's solid and rewarding, a milestone record in a career that deserves so much more attention from an artist who has never gotten the attention she truly deserves.

Closing in on a decade since the album's release, the sound and the soul are still as fresh today as they were when Single White Female first hit store shelves, longevity that's rare in an age of throw-away music from a seemingly endless parade of different but identical pre-fab singers.

I would characterize Chely Wright as a traditional country singer with a true contemporary style.

SWF gave me a big emotional jolt. I actually enjoyed the writing more than the arrangements on most tracks. Every song tells a poignant, real life story and makes a very powerful statement. Except for the title track, this CD contains mostly ballads, which is surprising because it certainly limits her obvious wide range.

3 and 1/2 stars. I liked it, but I didn't love it. The title track is very impressive. I thought the others had borderline arrangements. There is no doubt that Chely Wright has given contemporary country music a major lift with this CD. I look forward to hearing more of her work in the near future.

I picked up this CD after hearing "She Went Out for Cigarettes", in the hope that other songs on the album would have the same emotional depth (something unexpected based only on hearing the slicker, upbeat title song). Most do (especially "The Love that We Lost"), and even the cuts which were clearly designed to be radio ready are excellent. I gave five stars based on the number of days the CD has spent in my car player--10, and I'm not tiring of it yet.

I was watching the top 15 country videos, as voted by the fans, on the Great American Country cable channel and was completely blown away by the top requested song, It Was by Chely Wright. Now I'm not a country music fan but this song really transcended musical genre for me because it described what it's like to be in love more succinctly and accurately than anything I have ever heard or read before. So, I went right out and bought the CD. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the quality displayed on "It Was" was on most of the other tracks as well. Chely has a great voice and sings with such passion. I wholeheartedly recommend this CD.

I bought this cd nearly a year ago, and didn't think it one of the best in my collection until several months ago. It merely fit in with the others as a cd in the middle somewhere, but then I began to see more to this cd than just the amazing songs. Opening with the first single, the catchy "Single White Female," Chely Wright only improves as the CD continues. A clever tune follows, a love gone wrong story blended with everyday examples in "She Went Out For Cigarettes." One of the highlights of the CD is track three, the second single, "It Was." Contradictions that make more sense than reality make this track absolute brilliance; "It was real/it was magic/it was calm/it was savage/it was cool as a breeze/it was warm to the touch/it was never enough/it was always too much/it did all the things love does/that's how I knew it was." Though hard to match the sheer brilliance of "It Was," the best song on the disc is the fourth track. A poignant, insightful ballad with

which everyone can relate, "Unknown" tells a moving story of not wanting to be "unknown" while wishing someone would pay attention to those little things that make you yourself. The fifth track is third in a string of six great tracks. A remake of one of her earlier song with some new touches, "The Love That We Lost" tells the story of exactly what it's title signifies. The sixth song is by the greatest songwriter ever, Leslie Winn Satcher. "The Fire" is, what may seem like an overused word in the review, brilliant. The seventh song is absolutely amazing; though depressing at first, "Picket Fences" may not be understandable to all but this is another of the six brilliant in a row. The eighth song may not be brilliant, but the catchy "Some Kind Of Somethin" is fun to listen to and Chely's voice is captivating. The ninth, "Rubbin It In" may not be among the best on the album, but, like the rest, it's definitely tolerable. The tenth song is Leslie Satcher's second song on the cd; "Why Do I Still Want You" is another clever tune that adds to the general feel of the album, one that will be remembered for years to come. 5 stars.