Back To Me
by Kathleen Edwards
  • Record Label: Zoe
  • Release Date: Mar 1, 2005
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 19
  3. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. Entertainment Weekly
    100
    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]
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  2. Trouser Press
    90
    An album’s worth of excellent songs performed with gusto.
  3. The A.V. Club
    80
    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.
  5. Uncut
    80
    [An] eloquent set of songs about absence and change. [Apr 2005, p.108]
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  6. Billboard
    80
    A gorgeous collection that is equal parts country and rock, joy and (more often than not) pain.
  7. Q Magazine
    80
    Impressively reconfirms why she's alt-country's brightest rising star. [May 2005, p.111]
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  8. AllMusic
    80
    Back to Me is a powerful and affecting album from an artist who is quickly establishing herself as a major talent.
  9. Pitchfork
    77
    Back to Me is a bolder album [than Failer], with Edwards figuring more prominently and actively in the more personal songs.
  10. PopMatters
    70
    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.
  11. ShakingThrough.net
    70
    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.
  12. Mojo
    70
    For all the band's rich resonance, she shines brightest when [producer Colin] Cripps holds the kilowatts. [May 2005, p.98]
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  13. Los Angeles Times
    63
    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]
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  14. Amazon.com
    60
    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.
  15. Rolling Stone
    60
    The roots-rock downers are blander than her admirers would hope.
  16. The Guardian
    60
    Haunting and carefully crafted as it is, the disc cries out for a few more variations of tone and pace.
  17. Drowned In Sound
    60
    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.
  18. Blender
    60
    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]
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  19. Village Voice
    60
    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.
  20. Austin Chronicle
    40
    Marred by Edwards' rather unremarkable voice.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.6

Universal acclaim- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Brian
    Jan 20, 2007
    10
    I very much enjoyed the music on this album - "Back to Me" gets me going!
  2. SamD
    Mar 20, 2006
    8
    good, but there's something missing... it reminds me too much of fiona apple's "tidal", which seems great at first, but wans very 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.… Full Review »
  3. ChadS
    Feb 3, 2006
    8
    "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 "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.… Full Review »
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