★★★★★
Somehow, at the beginning of the 2000s, Reba McEntire managed to lose her footing at country radio, with more and more of her singles missing Top 10 than since the early 1980s. Granted, some of the chart decline is justified, given that Reba was shifting her focus to acting; the sudden insurgence of country-pop divas may have also put a dent in her success, not to mention the fact that hardly anyone over their mid-40s tends to have a hit in any genre...
- roughstock.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
The lack of dramatics on today's playlists have threatened to turn country radio into a complete yawn. Enter, stage left: one of the genre's most talented ambassadors, Reba McEntire, who can deliver a masterful vocal performance like few others in the format. With a stunning string of 59 Top 10 singles, McEntire's astonishing consistency is a tribute to her knowledge of the heart...
- www.the9513.com
2010-11-12
★★★★★
Reba McEntire has scored more hits than any country female in history, having passed Dolly Parton two years ago. She has conquered it all from the Opry to Broadway, but she's not ready to chill on the back porch just yet. This is her 34th studio disc and one of her best efforts. It blends hard-edged, modern country-rock with some profoundly tender ballad singing, as in the throwback, Bobbie Gentry purr of "The Day She Got Divorced...
- www.boston.com
2010-11-08
★★★★★
Reba ?McEntire leads off her 31st album with "Strange," an addictively sinister kiss-off that the next 12 tracks struggle to match. Though her voice has aged well, few of these tunes? provide it enough of a challenge, and the ones that do often sound like something she's already done better. Such strong, ?female-centric lyrics are too rare nowadays, but if they're not catchy, how will the message sink in?
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
After four years spent consolidating her media empire on Broadway and television (with the semi-loved WB series Reba), the forever not-quite-old Reba McEntire returns with her twenty-fifth album. Unlike other first ladies of country Dolly Parton and Patty Loveless, who recently drove their careers out of the black hole and into the bluegrass, the Nash-pop coppertop shows little sign of returning to any but her own red, red roots...
- www.blender.com
2010-08-22
★★★★★
No text for this review; see http://robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2010-06-11
★★★★★
Things are tough out there for women: working women, single women, married women, lonely women, abandoned women. But they've all got Reba, the Oprah of country music (and billed first-name only here), to turn to for a word of wisdom, comfort, advice or some down-home common sense. The Oklahoma-born singer-turned-actress, 54, has an uncanny way of staying connected to longtime fans and bringing new ones aboard...
- latimesblogs.latimes.com
2009-10-31
★★★★★
Performed by anyone else, "Strange,'' the ready-and-raring first single from Reba McEntire's new and 31st album, would make you pity the protagonist whose man has just left her. But this is Reba McEntire, so instead of a hanky she's waving a victory flag. "Strange, I oughta be in bed with my head in the pillow cryin'/ Over us/ But I ain't/ Ain't love strange,'' she sings with serious attitude on the defiant chorus...
- www.boston.com
2009-09-04
★★★★★
Performed by anyone else, "Strange,'' the ready-and-raring first single from Reba McEntire's new and 31st album, would make you pity the protagonist whose man has just left her. But this is Reba McEntire, so instead of a hanky she's waving a victory flag. "Strange, I oughta be in bed with my head in the pillow cryin'/ Over us/ But I ain't/ Ain't love strange,'' she sings with serious attitude on the defiant chorus...
- www.boston.com
2009-08-28
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