Twisted Angel
Twisted Angel is the fifth studio album by American country pop singer LeAnn Rimes, released in the United States on October 1, 2002 by Curb Records.
LeAnn performed the track "Love Is an Army" at the 2003 Country Music Awards.
The track "You Made Me Find Myself" is a cover. It was originally performed and written by international recording artist Tina Arena on her album Just Me.
The track "Review My Kisses" was covered by international recording artist Lara Fabian on her A Wonderful Life album.
Background
After re-signing her contract with Curb Records, Rimes began work recording songs for Twisted Angel for three years. It is the first album she would do under her new management. It is also the first album that Rimes's father, Wilbur C. Rimes, did not produce - instead Rimes was the executive producer of the album herself.Singles
Two singles were released from the album. "Life Goes On" was released as the lead single from the album on August 26, 2002. Holly George-Warren of Entertainment Weekly claimed the song would "probably go on to number one on the pop chart." The song peaked at number nine on the Adult Contemporary chart, thirty-five on the Pop Songs chart, twenty-eight on the Adult Pop Songs and sixty on the Country Songs chart in the US. The second single and final single, "Suddenly", was released internationally on February 18, 2003. The song peaked at forty-three on the Country song chart in the US.Critical reception
The album was met with mixed reviews, as Metacritic gave it a score of 51 out of 100. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave a mixed review about the album. Though praising Rimes for her conversion to pop by stating that it "isn't a bad career move at all, since there's a void there with the absence of Whitney Houston, the breakdown of Mariah Carey, and Christina Aguilera's bizarre insistence to strip instead of sing", Erlewine noted that Rimes "may not be an audience for it: even though this is well done, it is so pop it will alienate her older fans, and she needs to win over an older audience that may not be taken with her newly sexualized image." He also stated that the song-writing in on the album was "a little uneven; often, it's very good workmanlike mainstream pop, but there are a couple of duds, and even the best material is melodic without being hooky or memorable." Erlewine's biggest problem was the production and attitude of the album which he stated is "kind of fall through the cracks in 2002, when teen pop is dead and mainstream pop is veering away from divas and toward quirkier, friendlier singers like Vanessa Carlton, Avril Lavigne, and Michelle Branch." Erlewine concluded with stating that even though Rimes didn't do a bad job trying to get into mainstream pop he did state that the album is a bit "dated" and stated that Rimes would be better off using a different production team than Desmond Child. Jon Caramanica of Entertainment Weekly on the other hand gave the album a C+, stating that Rimes "desperately wants to play with the bad girls" and concluded by writing "Someone unbreak her heart, please." Dave Gil de Rubio of Barnes & Noble.com stated that Rimes is "moving farther from her country music roots with a set of songs closer in spirit to junior divas Britney and Christina." Jon Caramanica of Rolling Stone gave the album two out of five stars and stated, "Rimes, who got her start aping Patsy Cline, slaps her throaty drawl over hip-hop lite beats Jessica Simpson wouldn't touch, and a succession of mushy love songs don't help. With golden pipes and white-bread good looks, she could succeed Celine Dion as North America's ranking pop balladeer; in the meantime let's hope Nashville will take her back, and quick."Track listing
Credits and personnel
Credits for Twisted Angel were adapted from liner notes.;A thru K
- Peter Amato - arrangement, keyboards, producer, programming, recording
- Stephanie Bennett - harp
- Charlie Bisharat - violin
- Gareth Bowser - assistant engineer
- Chandler Bridges - additional engineering
- Chris Brooke - recording
- Denyse Buffum - viola
- Eve Butler - violin
- David Campbell - French horn, string quintet arrangement, timpani arrangement, conductor
- Andreas Carlsson - background vocals
- Sueann Carwell - background vocals
- Rob Chairelli - mix, recording
- Susan Chatman - violin
- Desmond Child - producer
- Steve Churchyard - recording
- Chris Clark - assistant engineer, assistant mix engineer
- Jon Clarke - alto flute, oboe
- Peter Cobbin - mixing, piano, programming, recording
- Brian Coleman - production manager
- Luis Conte - percussion
- Larry Corbett - cello
- Joel Derouin - violin
- Brad Dutz - timpani
- Gyan Evans - background vocals
* - Charlie Everett - violin
- DJ Mega Man - scratches
- Phill Dukes - viola
- Steve Ferrone - drums
- Michelle Forbes - assistant mix engineer
- Sherree Ford - background vocals
- Matt Funes - viola
- Humberto Gatica - recording
- Alex Gibson - assistant engineer
- Conrad Golding - additional engineering, assistant engineer
- Jules Gondar - recording
- Matt Gruber - recording
- Bernie Grundman - mastering
- Dino Herrmann - additional engineering
- Gerry Hilera - violin
- Brian Humphrey - assistant engineer
- Eric Jackson - acoustic guitar
- Corky James - electric guitar
- Suzi Katayama - orchestra manager
- Zev Katz - acoustic bass
- Peter Kent - violin
- Pat Kiernan - violin
;L thru Z
- Abe Laboriel Jr. - drums
- Abraham Laboriel - bass guitar
- Michael Landau - electric guitar
- Ana Landauer - violin
- Greg Landon - assistant engineer
- Matt Lavalla - recording, assistant engineer
- Craig Lozowick - additional engineering
- Darrin McCann - viola
- Bill Malina - additional engineering
- Nathan Malki - additional engineering
- Manny Marroquin - mixing
- Joe Meyer - French Horn
- John Morrical - assistant engineer
- Robbie Nevil - electric guitar
- Pete Novak - assistant mix engineer
- Jeanette Olsson - background vocals
- Simon Oswell - viola
- Charlie Paakkari - assistant engineer
- Gregg Paganni - arrangement, keyboard, producer, programming, recording
- Sid Page - violin
- Sara Parkins - violin
- Nora Payne - background vocals
- Bob Peterson - violin
- Kazi Pitelka - viola
- Tony Pleeth - cello
- Michelle Richards - violin
- Steve Richards - cello
- LeAnn Rimes - lead vocals, background vocals, executive producer
- Anatoly Rosinski - violin
- Alan Sanderson - assistant engineer
- Jonathan Schwarts - acoustic bass
- Mary Scully - bass guitar
- Leland Sklar - bass guitar
- Dan Smith - cello
- Ed Stein - violin
- Ruby Stein - cello
- Michael Thompson - electric guitar
- Rebeka Tuinei - assistant mix engineer
- John Wittenberg - violin
- Margaret Wooten - violin
- Gavyn Writer - violin
- Jennifer Young - assistant engineer
Charts