Tracks (Sony, 2000)
Collin Raye
Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz
Raye aims for a Big Sound from the get go with blazing guitars and pounding drums being pounded on the lead-off lyrically silly "She's All That," which Raye wrote with brother Scott.
And the love quotient is awfully high with song titles saying it all - "I Want to Be There," Completely," "You Will Always Be Mind and "You Still Take Me there." Love must be good for Raye the way he's singing about it. A duet with actress Bobby Eakes, "Loving This Way," works particularly well vocally.
The album only varies on a few topically interesting, but musically unexciting songs for which Raye deserves credit. "Harder Cards" is about a down-and-out wife who kills her abusive husband. "She's Gonna Fly" describes a woman who loses her abilities with age, while "Water and Bridges"examines looking back at decisions of abortion and a parental relationship. If the whole album had been like that instead of the syrupy sound that envelopes the other nine songs, Raye might have been on the right track.
CDs by Collin Raye

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