The most remarkable thing about this weeks #4 album is that LeAnn Rimes was thirteen years old when it was recorded and released. Although this is not my type of music (I had zero listens of her on last.fm before this week), I can say she is clearly gifted and her singing was not that of a teenager.

Naming your album as a thirteen year old Blue is a gutsy thing to do when one of the greatest albums of all time (by Joni Mitchell) is also named Blue. Of course, Blue is a single word and a common color, so it's not like Rimes named her album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Thriller.

As for the album itself, other than her skills as a singer, I have nothing to say about it. I don't think I've missed anything by not listening to her music and I won't be doing it intentionally going forward. Entirely skippable.

I'm going to keep this short. The #8 album this week is a greatest hits collection of Alan Jackson songs. I've reviewed one of his albums before, which I gave a big ol' "meh." This gets a big ol' "meh," too.

Debuting at #4, All I Want is the second Tim McGraw album I've reviewed. I closed my previous review with the sentence "Finally, I will not be listening to this album again," and I have stuck to that promise.

In a very real sense, All I Want is really no different than Not A Moment Too Soon. The second line of the first song is "Finally own a car that doesn't break down on the freeway." He wasn't pushing any musical boundaries with this release. He had a formula that worked well 17 months prior, and he stuck to it. I'll begrudgingly admit that the biggest hit off the album, I Like It, I Love It, is good fun.

Overall, my opinion of this hasn't changed, and like before, I will not be listening to this album again.

The top un-reviewed album this week is not The Woman In Me by Shania Twain at #7, it's the Batman Forever Soundtrack at #5. However, I cannot find the full album on any streaming service. Many of the songs can be found on other albums, but not all, and I don't care enough to look any harder than that. Therefore, it's Shania Twain's debut album we'll listen to this week!

One of my favorite television shows is (the first three seasons of) Arrested Development. One of the characters, Tobias Fünke, wrote a book called The Man Inside Me. I can't help but think of that book, which is used in various funny ways, when I read the title for this album. This is not a complementary thing for the album.

Reading Shania Twain's Wiki page, it turns out that she's married to the ex-husband of her former best friend who had an affair with Twain's first husband. All that's missing from that soap opera is an evil twin, babies switched at birth, and someone appearing (with convenient dramatic timing) previously believed to be dead.

I have no strong opinions about the music on the album itself. It sold quite well, and I can believe that many people like it, but it's not for me. I'll almost certainly never listen to it again.

When I saw the #6 album for this week, I said "I've never heard of John Michael Montgomery," but that's not true. Last year I reviewed All-4-One which included a cover of I Swear that was written and originally performed by John Michael Montgomery. I mentioned this in my review, but 10 months later his name did not remain embedded in my memory.

I Swear isn't on this eponymous album, but I Can Love You Like That is, which was also covered by All-4-One to great success. Playing this album I Can Love You Like That seemed familiar, but I'm not sure if it was the Country or R&B version I have heard before. All-4-One has many thanks to give John Michael Montgomery!

Outside of the All-4-One/John Michael Montgomery connection, I find nothing interesting about this album. It's not bad, but it's nothing special. The first line of the first song includes the words "I drive a pickup truck." This album was not trying to break new ground. If you're into this kind of Country music, I'm sure it delivers. I'm not, so it doesn't for me, and I can't recommend this album.

Hitting #7 on its first week on the charts, Who I Am by Alan Jackson is pretty standard mid-90s country.

This kind of country has never been "my jam," and this album has not changed my opinion. The songs on this album are not awful, not great, but again, not for me. A few of the songs off this album are on Alan Jackson's 34 Number Ones album. So, yeah, nothing special.

In summary, this album gets a big ol' "meh" from me.

Read My Mind by Reba McEntire is not the top-ranked album I have yet to listen to. That is actually Chant by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. However, I cannot find that album on any of the streaming services I have access to, and I don't care to try any harder than that.

As it goes, it is perhaps too bad that I can't find the Chant album because Read My Mind is boring. I have no feelings one way or another about the album. I guess it's fine, it's not offensive. But it's boring. On the other hand, I suspect that Chant would have at least been different.

Not a Moment Too Soon by Tim McGraw is the #3 album this week. I am not a big fan of modern country music. I like older country music: Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson are all great. Their songs are original and compelling. I find modern country a bit too trite and repetitive. The songs are so formulaic that someone put together a mix of songs all about the same things:

Not all modern country music is this bad. The worst country music is confined to the Bro-Country sub-genre. To an extent, the purveyors of this music are self-aware about this. For example, Beer Beer, Truck Truck (video) is a direct response to this criticism.

Not a Moment Too Soon is a bit too old to be Bro-Country and commit all the sins highlighted in the video above. Instead, it commits other sins including tackiness and racism!

• In It Doesn't Get Any Countrier Than This McGraw sings to his mother about his girlfriend and all the sex they've been having.
• In Indian Outlaw, McGraw (who is white) sings as if he was a Native American about his wigwam, paw-paw, and maw-maw. During one bridge there's a refrain that sounds like the Atlanta Braves theme.
• Refried Dreams is about being stuck in Mexico, destitute and missing a lost love. I'm not exactly sure what is refried about his dreams. Perhaps they're broken dreams, or unfulfilled, but what's refried about all that? Are they only refried because it sounds like refried beans? If so, is it basically only a slightly-racist pun? Hrm.
• Don't Take the Girl gives me painful whiplash. The first stanza is about a boy who wants to go fishing with his father, but doesn't want a girl to come along. No problem, that's cute enough. The next stanza the same boy is a teenager taking the same girl to the movies, when they are accosted by a stranger with a gun who wants to harm the girl. Wow, that's quite the turn. In the final stanza, the girl is dying during childbirth. Um, okay, that's… a way to end this song. I guess it tells a story but it's not a great one and it's not done in a way I find very artistic.

If you're wondering, in my opinion Americana is the inheritor to classic Country music.

Finally, I will not be listening to this album again.

This album hits all the typical country themes: a woman leaving a man ("Lucille"), American military ("Reuben James"), inter-class (or perhaps race) love and intolerance ("Long Arm of the Law"), prostitution ("Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town"), gang rape and revenge ("Coward of the County"), and love (every other song on the album). What strikes me is how similar these topics are similar to those in rap music, but since it's sung by a white guy with an actual tune behind it, it's somehow more socially acceptable. Perhaps it's because most of the non-love songs here are in the third person, while in rap it's often in the first.

Would I recommend this album? Eh, I'm fairly ambivalent about that. The first sentence above notwithstanding, the album isn't actually as country as I'm making it out to be. I'm generally not a fan of country, so this is actually a small amount of praise. It might be worth a listen just so you can say you've heard Kenny Rogers sing about the topics above. Or you could not, and go on with your day with the knowledge you're not missing much.