Shawn Colvin: Whole New You : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

This new collection from the folk-pop powerhouse with the gnomish voice immediately gets down to business. As front-loaded with commercial ammunition as any Mariah Carey album, Whole New You leads with two songs - the Spanish-inflected "Matter of Minutes" and the title number, which expertly renovates antique Sixties teen pop - whose tasteful hooks catch and grab, just like "Sunny Came Home," the intense little Grammy-winning tune from Colvin's 1996 album, A Few Small Repairs. The rest of Whole New You is as professional, if less immediate. But that's fine, because the contrast between Colvin's manner-free singing and the pristine arrangements by her co-songwriter and producer, John Leventhal, creates an interesting dance of the offhand and the strategic. In "Another Plane Went Down" and the curious "Mr. Levon," Colvin's voice drifts through Leventhal's crafted ambient folk - like dream pop that stops just short of heavy snoozing. (RS 866)

JAMES HUNTER