LeAnn Rimes: I Need You : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Leann Rimes' plucky, precocious act is tailor-made for these times, in which female country usually means adult-contemporary power ballads and you-go-girl self-assertion. On her latest, the little singer with the big voice sounds darned impressive, despite the fact that the synthetic-feeling I Need You is largely free of plausible human emotion. In addition to bankruptly titled tunes such as "I Need You" and "I Believe in You," there's a rhinestoned rocker called "Love Must Be Telling Me Something" and a moony, made-for-Disney duet with Elton John. No fewer than three Diane Warren tunes blot the landscape, including the faux-urban "Can't Fight the Moonlight" and the gently musing "But I Do Love You." Rimes' slight whiskey throb is more moving than her pageant-contestant bellow: The almost-country "One of These Days" and the bluegrass howl on her self-penned "Together, Forever, Always" come closest to showcasing the best qualities of her highly trained instrument.