Reba McEntire (MCA Nashville)
Some point guards overdribble. Some quarterbacks overthrow. Some politicians overpontificate. Reba McEntire oversings. On this, her 26th album, three different producers (Tony Brown, David Malloy and Keith Stegall) were unable to persuade McEntire to wield her prodigious talents to more subtle yet powerful effect. Not that she picks bad material: These 12 tracks include some clever tunes, such as the emotional "I'll Be" by Diane Warren, the philosophical "Nobody Dies of a Broken Heart" by Sonny LeMaire and Randy Sharp, and the appealingly romantic Chuck Jones-Templeton Thompson song, "Where You End and I Begin."
Even more memorable, alas, is the florid Boz Scaggs tune "We're All Alone," a half-Spanish duet with Josey Durval. As always, McEntire brings to mind Queen Gertrude's exhortation to Polonius in Hamlet: "More matter with less art."
Bottom Line: Those who don't learn from histrionics are doomed to repeat them
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