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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Back To Me
by Kathleen Edwards


8.4

based on 19 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Asking For Flowers

Official Artist Site

The Canadian singer-songwriter's sophomore release again blends country and rock sounds, and includes a guest appearance by Benmont Tench (The Heartbreakers).

LABEL:	Zoe
RELEASE DATE:	01 March 2005
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Singer-Songwriter, Rock, Alt-Country

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly

Offers up the same taut honky-tonk, high-lonesome balladry and electric-rock snarls as Failer. But the production is more direct, and her songs are more rueful. [4 Mar 2005, p.71]

Trouser Press

An album’s worth of excellent songs performed with gusto.

All Music Guide

Back to Me is a powerful and affecting album from an artist who is quickly establishing herself as a major talent.

Billboard

A gorgeous collection that is equal parts country and rock, joy and (more often than not) pain.

Q Magazine

Impressively reconfirms why she's alt-country's brightest rising star. [May 2005, p.111]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Edwards has a suggestively melancholy voice, a gift for well-turned phrases, and an uncanny knack for making uptempo tracks like "In State" sound as intimate and raw as her ballads.

Uncut

[An] eloquent set of songs about absence and change. [Apr 2005, p.108]

Pitchfork

Back to Me is a bolder album [than Failer], with Edwards figuring more prominently and actively in the more personal songs.

PopMatters

It's not that Back to Me is an unsatisfying listen; quite to the contrary, there are some smashingly rewarding moments on this release. It's just that if you have heard Failer, you're basically heard Back to Me already.

Mojo

For all the band's rich resonance, she shines brightest when [producer Colin] Cripps holds the kilowatts. [May 2005, p.98]

ShakingThrough.net

Back to Me is a solid successor to Failer, though at some point Edwards is going to have to toss aside the sour-relationship crutch if she truly wants to distinguish herself from the rest of the country-rock crowd.

Los Angeles Times

Too many of the songs feel more obvious and slight than bold and revealing -- as if Edwards' true muse is really Sheryl Crow. [6 Mar 2005]

Amazon.com

Over the course of the album, too much of the midtempo material sounds too much the same, more inspired lyrically than musically, failing to sustain the momentum of the opening tracks.

Rolling Stone

The roots-rock downers are blander than her admirers would hope.

The Guardian

Haunting and carefully crafted as it is, the disc cries out for a few more variations of tone and pace.

Drowned In Sound

The only potentially bad thing about Edwards' style is that many of the tracks on the later half of the record tend to all bleed together.... That said, 'Back To Me' demonstrates Edwards' prowess as a top lyricist.

Blender

The more her follow-up slugs [Lucinda] Williams' bourbon'n'romance on the rocks, the drier it gets.... When she shakes it up just right on the sinister libido-rocker "Back To Me," she sounds familiar and like no one else. [Apr 2005, p.116]

Village Voice

Edwards's lapses are largely counteracted by her sturdy melodies, her hard-hitting session drummers, and, mostly, her voice, which conveys acres of chin-up melancholy without even rolling up its heart-bedecked sleeves.

Austin Chronicle

Marred by Edwards' rather unremarkable voice.

The average user rating for this album is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Brian gave it a10:
I very much enjoyed the music on this album - "Back to Me" gets me going!

Sam D gave it an8:
good, but there's something missing... it reminds me too much of fiona apple's "tidal", which seems great at first, but wans very suddenly for some unknown reason.

Chad S gave it an8:
"In State" is the best battered woman narrative set to music that I've ever heard. You buy the cd and turn the page on the booklet and you think, "Oh, the prom queen writes songs, too." Edwards is very beautiful. The rest of "Back to Me" is solid, but nothing that's transcending like the opening track, which is right up there with the best of Aimee Mann and Dar Williams.

Dean S. gave it a9:
Comparing Kathleen Edwards to Sheryl Crow is like calling Gram Parsons a poor man's Don Henley. I think the fact that the critic's scores range from 100 points all the way down to 40 is very telling -- this stuff resonates with some people like a steel guitar at a sound check, others apparently pan it because it doesn't have a good beat and they can't dance to it. I think a lot of the finer points of this great album are simply going over the heads of shallow listeners. From the stellar opening duo of "In State" and the title track, this disc quite simply blows its excellent predecessor out of the water. It's really less of an album than it is a compelling collection of short stories. Edwards is fast becoming the Neil Young of the new century.

Ron C gave it a7:
Some interesting songs, but it's not "Failer".

Russell R gave it a9:
Pungent rockers and sad-pretty ballads make this memorable collection even better than her debut.

Back To Me by Kathleen Edwards

Back To Me
by Kathleen Edwards