First album since 1996

Shawn Colvin is back, better than ever

Shawn Colvin
Whole New You
(Columbia Records)

By David John Farinella
Special to CNN

(CNN) -- Five years is an eternity in the music world. Fickle fans find new objects of affection, popular music shifts more than California fault lines and, more often than not, an artist's talent slips.

Not Shawn Colvin. She throws all those perceptions in the waste can with her new release, "Whole New You." It's Colvin's first album since 1996's Grammy-honored "A Few Small Repairs."

AUDIO "Whole New You" WAV sound "Roger Wilco" WAV sound

From the album's first track to its last, 11 in all, there is not one dud. Indeed, Colvin seems to have grown stronger and more assured in her talents without sacrificing her innate ability to pen heart-wrenching autobiographical tunes.

Colvin broke out as a folk singer (even winning a Grammy for best contemporary folk recording in 1989), and has evolved into a more diverse performer. The song "Whole New You" easily could have fit on an Aimee Mann record; "Anywhere You Go" is akin to a Sheryl Crow hit.

Songs mirror personal changes

The changes in Colvin's personal life -- a new marriage and child -- keep her emotionally vested in her lyrics. The album's opening track, "A Matter of Minutes," is as intensely personal as anything she's ever written. In "Bound To You" she proclaims, "'Cause I'm bound to you and all that it means/Like the earth below and the sky of blue/Are bound to me and you."

The dreamy "Another Plane Went Down" is an interesting look inside Colvin's stream of consciousness. "Roger Wilco" and "Mr. Levon" enable her to write in the third person of loneliness and depression.

"Whole New You" also works on the musical plane, thanks to the talents of musician John Leventhal. The duo has worked together a number of times in the past, and multi-instrumentalist Leventhal clearly knows how to approach music for Colvin's vocal range.

On songs like "Nothing Like You" Leventhal plays all the instruments. On others, a rhythm section including drummer Shawn Pelton and bassist Michael Rhodes joins him. Guest harmony vocalists include James Taylor on the evocative "Boneyards" and Texas-based guitarist and producer Charlie Sexton on "Roger Wilco."

"I'll Say I'm Sorry Now" borrows heavily from the Sarah McLachlan-Lilith Fair tradition: "I'm gonna let you down/I know that now/Make you cry, I know I will." Full of honest pessimism, it's an interesting song to close an album that details the ups and downs of a changing life.

That's what makes Colvin such a unique voice on the music landscape: She's able to look inside and pour out her feelings (positive and negative) with striking clarity. Moreover, that's what makes "Whole New You" such a strong offering, even if it's been five years since her last.

Shawn Colvin showcases a 'Whole New You'
March 28, 2001
Shawn Colvin sings 'Holiday Songs'
December 4, 1998

Shawn Colvin official site

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