Eleven: a bunch of emotions

It is not very usual at all I’m doing some comments about an artist and her/his latest album. But here I think I should, so I do.
I’m going to write about the latest album of Martina McBride, Eleven. I discovered Martina watching the CMA 2011, performing the song “One Nigh” (on her latest album, first track). In my mind the performance of Martina was absolutely amazing and I couldn’t take the song off my head. The melody is swinging, the words really beautiful. That was for the little story.
First of all, I bought the signature bundle which came with a T-shirt with Martina on it, a handed-signed booklet, a sticker and of course the CD. Loving it!

Then I have to talk about the album itself and there is a lot to say (or write …). As I said, “One Nigh” is the first track of a serie of … eleven. So the album starts with a joyfully song, making you want to dance. And listening to the whole album, Martina succeeds in giving you a lot of emotions. “I’m gonna love through it” is more than just a song. It is a wonderful ballad about fighting cancer and how family, friends, wife or husband are important in such a fight, such an experience in the life of a human being. It makes you realize not only the person which has cancer suffers, but the circle also does. I think that it is not a one-more-song-about-cancer saying cancer-is-bad but a song about relationships between people being in this tough situation, the words proving it: “When you’re weak, I’ll be strong, When you let go, I’ll hold on […] I’m gonna love you through love it”. We know cancer is bad, so no need to sing it again. But the way the cancer not only hurts affected one has not been said so powerfully, so truly, so humbly. For me this song means a lot, I already was in such a situation. But Martina also succeed in saying that even if you win your fight against cancer, your life is changed for aways: “To hide what the cancer took from her, But she just want to feel like a woman again”. Martina just found the right words for describing a tough situation. In my mind this song is one of the most beautiful of the album.

But the album also have its lot of beautiful emotions like “Marry Me” which is incredibly touching and powerful. For me it’s a song about marriage saying that “I don’t just love when I want to or when I need to” (not a quotation). Martina sings “Marry me Today and every day” that makes me think of this. So romantic. “Broken Umbrella” is also a sweet and beautiful love ballad remembering everyone when they felt in love, and everything was perfect, like it was always sun in your heart. These two songs are “complementary” in my mind because one is like about the beginning of a relationship, and the other for saying “love should last, I want your love for me last”. It’s a beautiful combination.

For me the funniest song is “Teenage Daughters” with its incredibly honesty. When we have kids, it is true we sometimes blame our children when they break the rules we fix, or something else. It is also true kids are so sweet, with their hazel eyes when they need something. And Martina just reminds us we were … the same. And that is really funny the way she brings it, she sings it. She doesn’t take the party of kids, but the songs could say “Hey, you were the same, you’ve just grown up and realize it is bad or not good”. It’s pretty interesting! It is just another part of the life of a human being which is sing here. The song also contains a lot of “do do do” which make you sing loud. You just want to swing (again) by listening to this song. Incredible.

The album contains a lot of love, that’s a fact. But not the usual i-love-you-so-much-that-i-could-die-for-you (yeah you know the kind) songs but love in every way, some “unusual” ways that we may not be used to listen the … way Martina sings it: love facing the cancer, love facing the time, love facing the sins, love facing difficulties, love facing the distance. To make it short: love facing the life. And all of this in this album. Simply amazing!

I’m not going to describe every song of the album (I did enough) and I will just have some words about Martina’s vocal performance. The emotions you will have listening to this album is not just because of the strong words of each song, but because Martina made such a vocal performance. For example in the “Long Distance Lullaby” song, sometimes you really think Martina’s whispering to her daughters with this sweet-mother-voice every woman can have talking to her kids. Or in “Watcha Gonna Do” she ends the song slowly and low letting you questioning yourself, thinking “Am I sometimes acting like this” (probably …) or something else. In “Broken Umbrella” she takes a joyfully voice to talk about love, because loving somebody is really beautiful, joyfully. She just has the right voice for what she’s singing: when it is happy you feel it her voice, when it is hard she makes you feel it. It is really hard to describe but when you’re listening to the album, you say to yourself “Wow, her voice is really the right for what she’s singing right now”. It is simply amazing!

To finish, Eleven is an amazing album (buy it, better twice that one), nothing more nothing less. I would like to say it is a “truth” album: every song is so strong, so true, so powerful. It’s not like i-m-gonna-make-a-new-album-just-for-making-one-yay. No, it is a bunch of emotions, the kind of album that at the end you’re saying to yourself “W-O-W, play it again”. Powerful, true, beautiful, touching, full of love.

Thank you very very very much Martina McBride, you truly deserve it, “It always be this way”