Track Listing

1. If I Had Your Name
2. Cry Cry (Till The Sun Shines)
3. Tryin' To Find A Reason
4. For These Times
5. Anyway (Album & Digital Single Version)
6. How I Feel
7. I'll Still Be Me
8. Beautiful Again
9. Everybody Does
10. House Of A Thousand Dreams
11. Love Land

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5742 in Music
• Released on: 2007-04-03
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
After 16 million in sales and 22 top 10 singles, some artists might be afraid to tinker with success and tempt fate. But not Martina McBride. Following up on her platinum-selling Timeless album, a poignant collection of country classics representing her first effort as solo producer, she's at the production helm again for her ninth studio release, Waking Up Laughing. Since her debut in 1992, McBride has maintained a consistent presence on the country charts, including six number one singles, and has also enjoyed crossover success in the pop and adult contemporary genres. Always striving for new artistic heights, McBride is breaking new ground by serving as producer, writer and artist for her latest album, which includes three songs she co-wrote with the Warren Brothers and other top songwriters.

Amazon.com
Martina McBride has long been a champion of music as social consciousness, particularly for abused women ("Independence Day") and children. On Waking Up Laughing, her ninth album and the follow-up to Timeless, her platinum-selling album of country classics, she advances the theme while expanding it. While two songs explore the issue of unwed mothers (particularly the exquisite "Love Land," which closes the album), and another, "Beautiful Again," touches on child sexual abuse, her overall repertoire embraces the wholeness of family, and of standing strong together in the face of adversity and defeat. Musically, McBride has always proved to be an elegant thorn--her song selection is often inspired (and here, she co-wrote three tunes, including the skyscraping single "Anyway"), but she has tended to use her huge, ride-the-wave soprano full-tilt, without employing the subtle shadings that would make her even more emotionally resonant. On Waking Up Laughing she seems to have worked on the problem, yet in her second foray as solo producer, she still tends to gild the lily instrumentally--inflating string bridges between choruses, for example, or loading the opening country-pop track, "If I Had Your Name," with a Southern-rock guitar break, a listen-to-me fiddle showcase, a Celtic guitar intro, and a close that brings to mind George Harrison's sitar in play-it-backward mode. That said, she makes fine use of what sounds like a black female choir on the uplifting "For These Times," and wisely keeps the haunting break-up ballad "Tryin' to Find a Reason" (with Keith Urban's harmony vocals and guitar solo) lean and affecting. As McBride works to refine her pastiche of creativity, commerciality, and social awareness, she slyly takes more chances than one might think, all the while rallying old fans and making new ones. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

Great country music
Fantastic country music by a great country artist. This is a must- have CD for Martina fans.

Custom-made for AC radio
Martina McBride has one of the best voices in country music today so it was a huge disappointment that she chose to waste her talent on a CD of second-rate material such as this one. This is her worst album since 1999's Emotion. It's slightly better than that red-hot mess but not by much. It pales in comparison to its predecessor, 2005's Timeless. Timeless was an excellent album, but not what poptry radio is looking for these days. My guess is that in order to avoid being pigeon-holed as "too traditional" or "too country", Martina overcompensated by going too far in the other direction with this effort. It certainly hasn't gotten her back into the good graces of radio, since there have been no major hits from this collection, aside from the lead single "Anyway".

This is not a country CD; it seems to be aimed more at adult-contemporary radio listeners. I'm giving it two stars, instead of one, because there are a few decent songs - "Anyway", "Tryin' To Find A Reason", and "For These Times" - and because I just can't bring myself to give Martina McBride a one-star review.

Bottom line: if you liked "Emotion", you'll probably like "Waking Up Laughing". But if you want real country music, pass on this one and hope Martina offers up something better the next time around.

LOVE MARTINA, BUT...
I do love Martina. I think she is a great talent who has chosen her material very wisely over the years. However, there is just something different about this cd. Her voice is excellent form and many of the songs she has selected do have social messages and this is always a good thing. The problem is that this album is a much more depressing that her previous releases. With the exception of the first single, "Anyway" there really is not a positive, uplifting song in the bunch. I have listened to this album many times and always find myself turning it off before the end of the cd. I guess it could be summed up this way: I do not believe many of the songs to be radio friendly and while it is important to give the folks something to think about when they listen, you should never underestimate the value of a nice melody and catchy chorus.

The best examples of Martina's talent are her "Greatest Hits" cd and the new live concert dvd. It will be well worth your time.