LeAnn Rimes: Twisted Angel : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Lascivious come-ons from pretty young things are a matter of course in the pop world, but you'd have thought LeAnn Rimes would stay chaste a bit longer. Instead, we get "Tic Toc," wherein the former cowboy-hatted Texas cutie begs a lover to "come inside the walls of ecstasy" and take his time while "moving down low." When a pseudo-Latin groove breaks in a little later, you worry she's gonna twist an ankle dancing. Such is the stuff of a country-pop crossover. Rimes, who got her start aping Patsy Cline, slaps her throaty drawl over hip-hop lite beats Jessica Simpson wouldn't touch, and a succession of mushy love songs don't help. With golden pipes and white-bread good looks, she could succeed Celine Dion as North America's ranking pop balladeer; in the meantime, let's hope Nashville will take her back, and quick.