Whole New You

Reviewed by:
David Peisner

Shawn Colvin is a first-rate songwriter who seems to currently operate under the faulty assumption that her songs sound best when given a slick pop production. You can’t really blame her. After all, she was rewarded for the sanitary sound of her 1996 song, “Sunny Came Home” with two Grammys and the biggest hit of her career. Unfortunately, this overpolished treatment, which comes courtesy of cowriter and producer John Leventhal on Whole New You, sucks the dirt and blood right out of her tunes. Some still shows, though: On “Matter of Minutes” she sounds like Sarah McLachlan without the big chip on her shoulder; “Bound to You” is a solid, Mellencampy rocker; and “Another Plane Went Down” spits some surprising venom. But the rest of the time, what should be gritty folk songs come out as ethereal pop mush—the kind of stuff that makes Paula Cole fans drool and the rest of us cringe.