Whole New You

Now that she's on the mommy track, Colvin writes about the impossibility of leaving, much less returning, with a torch. [3/30/2001, p.68]

While this falls short of the momentous A Few Small Repairs, it's still something to treasure.

Whole New You peters out in its midsection, falling back on a succession of pleasant but unremarkable songs, but its opening third takes the shape of one career highlight after another. Marred only by the occasional well-worn vocal inflection--and the occasional "we try and try / we cry, baby, cry" couplet--those songs are strong enough to bring the album as a whole up to their distinguished level.

Whole New You may not contain a song that will spark sales and awards the way "Sunny Came Home" did, but anyone who, like the artist herself, has come to the safe harbor of family life (even with its many challenges) after a long, uncertain voyage through personal relationships and life experiences will appreciate Colvin's ruminations on the subject.

Whole New You easily rises above the din of the sound-alike pop and rock recordings currently crowding the marketplace, offering a plethora of complex yet sweet melodies and lyrics that are both smart and rife with empathetic emotion.

I don't think this collection has quite the edge of Repairs, yet there are enough sepia portraits of romantic angst, enough evocations of exposed sensitivity, sufficient signs that this mistress of the melancholy will once again win the hearts of earlier subscribers to her work.

Musically a pretty blend of folksy guitar and lightly new-wave synth, these tunes seethe in a nice-girl way, simmering slightly, but never quite boiling over.