Family (LeAnn Rimes)

Family is LeAnn Rimes' ninth studio album that was released on October 9, 2007 by Curb Records.
==Tracklisting==
#Family 3:55
#Nothin' Better To Do 4:25
#Fight 3:27
#Good Friend And A Glass Of Wine 3:34
#Something I Can Feel 3:43
#I Want You With Me 3:33
#Doesn't Everybody 3:53
#Nothing Wrong 4:22
#Pretty Things 3:45
#Upper Hand 3:51
#One Day Too Long 3:38
#What I Cannot Change 5:14
Bonus Tracks
#Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore 4:48
#When You Love Someone Like That 4:39
==Chart Performance==
"Family" debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 74,200 copies in the United States. It spent a total of 20 weeks on the Billboard 200. As of July 2011, it has sold 401,000 copies in United States.
In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at #31 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Rimes's first album to miss the top 20 of the chart (though not all of Rimes' albums were released in the UK).
==Critical Reception==
"Family" received positive reviews from most music critics.
At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 70, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four out of five stars and called it "surprisingly far-ranging underneath its soft country-pop veneer [...] a canny blend of the commercial and the confessional".
Blender's Jane Dark complimented its "lighthearted genre-hopping", writing that it "suggests nothing so much as a Broadway smash about a restless country star, borrowing from many styles, beholden to none."
Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe praised Rimes' songwriting and dubbed Family "the best, most cogent album of her career".
Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times complimented her "gentle belting-out" and commented that "the music echoes the fearlessness in the lyrics".
Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe called Rimes "a distinctive interpretive singer" and viewed that her songwriting gives the album "the kind of focus and thematic coherence that most Nashville acts can't be bothered with." He cited the album as "among the strongest mainstream country albums of the past several years."
Ken Tucker of Billboard gave the album a favorable review and said, "It took personal experience for LeAnn Rimes to get to the point where she could write, record and release Family, the sum of a so-far extraordinary but still young life. But just because it's a personal album doesn't mean it doesn't speak to the masses."
However, Q gave the album two out of five stars and stated "There's little spark, despite her admirable willingness to take chances."
Entertainment Weekly's Alanna Nash gave it a B rating and commented that "Rimes displays new maturity in songwriting [...] though too often she lapses into posturing power pop".
Adam Sweeting of Uncut criticized its music, writing that the songs "sound like an update of the kind of AOR racket Pat Benatar and Heart were making in the '80s".
Dave Simpson of The Guardian noted "A slightly too-smooth production and typically overblown Bon Jovi collaboration", but called it "an album full of swaggering rhythm'n'booze and emotional confessionals that explore a dysfunctional childhood".
Despite finding the song "uneven", Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars and cited "Nothin' Better to Do", "Family", and "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" as highlights.
Thomas Kintner of The Hartford Courant called the album "a carefully manicured, but still lively assortment that highlights her substantial vocal strengths", and praised Rimes' singing, stating "She is prone to embracing tunes so disposable that they should be beneath her notice, but the melodic richness she showers on even the most lackluster lyrics makes for interesting listening."
Category:2000s albums
Category:Country
Category:LeAnn Rimes albums