The Song Remembers When

The Song Remembers When is Trisha Yearwood's third studio album that was released on October 26, 1993 on MCA Nashville Records.
==Album Background==
"The Song Remembers When" was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1993 and contained ten tracks. Thom Jurek of Allmusic called the content "contemporary country" and "top notch no matter where the pair get it from."
John McAlley of Rolling Stone called The Song Remembers When's tone "somber." McAlley goes on to explain that, "Love (Sort of) Stinks" might have been a more apt title for this album, such are the voices of heartache, spite and uncertainty that permeate it. So total, in fact, is its focus on the tribulations of romantic love that Song resembles a concept record." 
The album opens with the title track, which was described by Jurek as "innocent love gone bad." The second song, "Better Your Heart Than Mine," which was written by Lisa Angelle and Andrew Gold was said to evoke the Rock-inspired style of Bonnie Raitt, according to Jurek. 
The third track, "I Don't Fall In Love So Easy" features background vocals from Rodney Crowell, who also wrote the song. Most of the songs included on the album are further recorded in a country pop style, including "The Nightingale" and "Lying to the Moon."
The album includes two cover versions. The first is a cover of Linda Ronstadt's "Mr. Radio," one of Yearwood's major influences. McAlley called "Mr. Radio" a "reverent cover" of Ronstadt's song.
The second cover song is Willie Nelson's 1966 single, "One In a Row," in which Nelson performs a guitar solo. In addition, Nelson also contributed his vocals to another track on the album, "Here Comes Temptation."
Matraca Berg's song "Lying to the Moon" (originally recorded by Berg on her 1990 album of the same name) was considered by McAlley to be, "the hit-bound title track so undeniably sad that songs intended to offer reconciliation and uplift." 
He further stated that "The Nightingale" and "I Don't Fall In Love So Easy" to also possess what "Lying to the Moon" has, stating they, "buckle under their own ambivalence and the album's cumulative weight."
==Tracklisting==
#The Song Remembers When
#Better Your Heart Than Mine
#I Don't Fall In Love So Easy (featuring Rodney Crowell)
#Hard Promises To Keep
#Mr. Radio
#The Nightingale
#If I Ain't Got You
#One In A Row (featuring Willie Nelson)
#Here Comes Temptation	
#Lying To The Moon
Internation album version
#Walkaway Joe
#The Song Remembers When 
#Better Your Heart Than Mine
#I Don't Fall In Love So Easy
#Hard Promises to Keep"	 
#Mr. Radio
#The Nightingale
#If I Ain't Got You	 
#One In a Row 
#Here Comes Temptation
#Lying to the Moon 
#New Kid In Town
==Chart Performance==
"The Song Remembers When" peaked at #6 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart and #40 on the Billboard 200. In December of 1993, it was certified gold by the RIAA; a year later in December of 1994, it was certified platinum in sales by the RIAA.
==Critical Reception==
John McAlley of Rolling Stone gave "The Song Remembers When" three out of five stars, giving his reasons for this by stating: "To say a record is downbeat is not to say it is bad. Without exception, the neocountry music on Song is accessible, state-of-the-art and brilliantly played and arranged. But for the 29-year-old singer, The Song Remembers When is not the rich showcase she had on her two previous albums. For all its grit, there is a middle-of-the-road quality about Song that is disconcerting. And its lesser material feels secondhand. There is little of the spontaneity and few of the interpretive leaps that have made Yearwood's vocal gift so arresting.
Allmusic's Thom Jurek gave it a higher review, giving it four out of five stars. Jurek praised the album more highly, stating, "It's poetry, this combination of singer and song. She couldn't sing it any better if she'd written it; the accents create tension and drama and images from every betrayed-lover's movie from the '40s on, washing through the mix. Only a real singer can deliver the image from the heart of the song. Yearwood here is the heart of the song itself."
CD Universe also reviewed the album where it received five out of five stars. The website considered that many of the tracks combined with Yearwood's vocals, "shows the artistry of what an accomplished interpreter can create with a strong melody." CD Universe called the tracks, "The Song Remembers When" & "The Nightingale" the album's highlights.
Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a "C+", writing: "While her last album, the thrilling Hearts in Armor, signified the arrival of an extraordinary song interpreter with a voice along the lines of Linda Ronstadt’s, her follow-up, The Song Remembers When (MCA), is as airless as a year-old balloon."
Rolling Stone wrote: "For all its grit, there is a middle-of-the-road quality about Song that is disconcerting. And its lesser material feels secondhand."
Category:1990s albums
Category:Country
Category:Trisha Yearwood albums