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Music CD - Martina McBride: Waking Up Laughing
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Music CD: Waking Up Laughing
Artist: Martina McBride
List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $6.17
Your Save: $ 12.81 ( 67% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: RCA
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. If I Had Your Name
2. Cry Cry (Till The Sun Shines)
3. Tryin' To Find A Reason
4. For These Times
5. Anyway (Album & Digital Single Version)
6. How I Feel
7. I'll Still Be Me
8. Beautiful Again
9. Everybody Does
10. House Of A Thousand Dreams
11. Love Land
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0886970367424
Label: RCA
Manufacturer: RCA
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: RCA
Release Date: 2007-04-03
Studio: RCA
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great country music
Comment: Fantastic country music by a great country artist. This is a must- have CD for Martina fans.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Custom-made for AC radio
Comment: Martina McBride has one of the best voices in country music today so it was a huge disappointment that she chose to waste her talent on a CD of second-rate material such as this one. This is her worst album since 1999's Emotion. It's slightly better than that red-hot mess but not by much. It pales in comparison to its predecessor, 2005's Timeless. Timeless was an excellent album, but not what poptry radio is looking for these days. My guess is that in order to avoid being pigeon-holed as "too traditional" or "too country", Martina overcompensated by going too far in the other direction with this effort. It certainly hasn't gotten her back into the good graces of radio, since there have been no major hits from this collection, aside from the lead single "Anyway".
This is not a country CD; it seems to be aimed more at adult-contemporary radio listeners. I'm giving it two stars, instead of one, because there are a few decent songs - "Anyway", "Tryin' To Find A Reason", and "For These Times" - and because I just can't bring myself to give Martina McBride a one-star review.
Bottom line: if you liked "Emotion", you'll probably like "Waking Up Laughing". But if you want real country music, pass on this one and hope Martina offers up something better the next time around.
Customer Rating:
Summary: LOVE MARTINA, BUT...
Comment: I do love Martina. I think she is a great talent who has chosen her material very wisely over the years. However, there is just something different about this cd. Her voice is excellent form and many of the songs she has selected do have social messages and this is always a good thing. The problem is that this album is a much more depressing that her previous releases. With the exception of the first single, "Anyway" there really is not a positive, uplifting song in the bunch. I have listened to this album many times and always find myself turning it off before the end of the cd. I guess it could be summed up this way: I do not believe many of the songs to be radio friendly and while it is important to give the folks something to think about when they listen, you should never underestimate the value of a nice melody and catchy chorus.
The best examples of Martina's talent are her "Greatest Hits" cd and the new live concert dvd. It will be well worth your time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good but not what I expected
Comment: I like Martina McBride however this album (with a few exceptions) was not what I expected. I saw the album being sold in Christian bookstores so I thought (especially after hearing the cut "Anyway") that it would be an inspirational/Christian/Gospel album. I was a little dissapointed with the content in that regard.
I don't think this album belongs in Christian bookstores. I wish that she would have done a consistently spiritual/inspirational album with other tracks along the lines of Anyway. But, otherwise it is a good album. And of course...SHE CAN SING!!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hope has a home, but the mix hurts.
Comment: She may sing of hardship and heartache, but hope also has a home on her hearth. McBride could light a fire under the wettest blanket, and it would still burn brightly. "Anyway" is the lighters-in-the-air anthem. But it's songs like "House of 1,000 Dreams" that really bring home the heartland emotions that color McBride's landscapes. It's a shame that the overall mix of the album mars the presentation. McBride's vocal is dry and out in front of the band, making it sound like she's singing along to the stereo in your living room -- a private concert, but a bit disconcerting.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Martina McBride has long been a champion of music as social consciousness, particularly for abused women ("Independence Day") and children. On Waking Up Laughing, her ninth album and the follow-up to Timeless, her platinum-selling album of country classics, she advances the theme while expanding it. While two songs explore the issue of unwed mothers (particularly the exquisite "Love Land," which closes the album), and another, "Beautiful Again," touches on child sexual abuse, her overall repertoire embraces the wholeness of family, and of standing strong together in the face of adversity and defeat. Musically, McBride has always proved to be an elegant thorn--her song selection is often inspired (and here, she co-wrote three tunes, including the skyscraping single "Anyway"), but she has tended to use her huge, ride-the-wave soprano full-tilt, without employing the subtle shadings that would make her even more emotionally resonant. On Waking Up Laughing she seems to have worked on the problem, yet in her second foray as solo producer, she still tends to gild the lily instrumentally--inflating string bridges between choruses, for example, or loading the opening country-pop track, "If I Had Your Name," with a Southern-rock guitar break, a listen-to-me fiddle showcase, a Celtic guitar intro, and a close that brings to mind George Harrison's sitar in play-it-backward mode. That said, she makes fine use of what sounds like a black female choir on the uplifting "For These Times," and wisely keeps the haunting break-up ballad "Tryin' to Find a Reason" (with Keith Urban's harmony vocals and guitar solo) lean and affecting. As McBride works to refine her pastiche of creativity, commerciality, and social awareness, she slyly takes more chances than one might think, all the while rallying old fans and making new ones. --Alanna Nash
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