I Am Shelby Lynne
by Shelby Lynne
  • Record Label: Mercury
  • Release Date: Jan 25, 2000
Metascore
83

Universal acclaim - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
    91
    Even more than, speak of the devil, Garth Brooks, she's a creature of the recording industry and the smorgasbord-of-the-air it's laid out everywhere. Are the emotions she displays so pithily as synthetic in the end as her harmonica-with-strings or steel/slide guitar? Does that make them less real?
  2. AllMusic
    90
    Luckily her sixth full release has some true charm, with some fine blue-eyed soul and slickly produced rock. But the production tries too hard to align her with Sheryl Crow's growling sound.
  3. Checkout.com
    90
    Her latest, I Am Shelby Lynne, is not a country record, but rather a graceful hybrid of roots rock influences and Muscle Shoals soul that adds up to one of the most intimate, earthy and adult pop-rock records in recent memory.
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  5. CDNow
    90
    Rarely does a relative unknown come across with an album as fiercely confident and fully formed as this.
  6. Village Voice
    80
    Don't misunderstand. I Am Shelby Lynne is a standout... Still, if the range of reference marks Lynne's hard-won liberation from cookie-cutter Nashville, there's a different sort of plasticity to this sound, which may explain why it broke not in the heartland or on VH1, but the U.K.
  7. The A.V. Club
    80
    Fortunately, Lynne has the material to back up the declaration, and in erstwhile Sheryl Crow producer Bill Bottrell (who co-writes most of these tracks), she's found a partner in tune with her genre-blurring aspirations, liberally mixing elements of country, blues, R&B, and lounge-infused jazz, yet still accommodating the occasional drum machine and synthesizer.
  8. Q Magazine
    80
    Stylistically, Lynne steps out in several directions and gives the impression that she could succeed in any of them: the warm caress of her voice and the cool, cutting edge of her songs suggest great things.
  9. Wall of Sound
    77
    There is much temptation in all of this, but little satisfaction. It all sounds like someone named Shelby Lynne, for her voice is impeccable throughout. But despite its title, the album comes no closer to suggesting who she might be than her previous outings have. And too few of the songs -- despite their technical virtuosity -- beg to be played over and again.
  10. HOB.com
    70
    The weaknesses of this ten song collection come in the occasional over orchestration found on some tracks that would do well in succumbing to the subtlety that Lynne and her producer Bill Bottrell have mastered in other spots.
  11. Rolling Stone
    70
    Scattered about this engaging, enigmatic disc is a bit of Dusty in Memphis, a touch of Bobbie Gentry's swamp-country persona, a hint of Prince's instinct for making voices and rhythms sound positively libidinous, and a whole lot of Shelby Lynne.
  12. Sonicnet
    70
    It ain't Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis, but it's close.
  13. Salon
    60
    So why doesn't "I Am" quite hit the mark? Blame it on producer Bill Bottrell, best-known for his work with Sheryl Crow. Simply put, he lays it on a little too thick.

Awards & Rankings

16
#16 Best Album of 2000

User Reviews

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User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9
  1. Monica
    Mar 9, 2011
    10
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  2. upperclasstwit
    Mar 5, 2016
    5
    I'm just rating this album to drop its score so that it stops cluttering up the top of the user's all time favorites page because, c'mon,I'm just rating this album to drop its score so that it stops cluttering up the top of the user's all time favorites page because, c'mon, we're not putting this at number one, are we?… Full Review »
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