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 Faith
Hill - The Hits
By: George
Peden, CSO Staff Journalist
“Well, it's
a long way from Star, Mississippi
To the big stage I'm singing on tonight
And sometimes the butterflies still get me
When I'm in the spotlight
And some people seem to think that I've changed
That I'm different than I was back then
But in my soul, I know that I'm the same way
That I've really always been…”
Mississippi
Girl: Faith Hill
Some say a
Greatest Hits package marks the end of a career. Often when an
artist can no longer pull the crowds or make the registers
ring, the label will throw a compilation of chart successes
together in the hope of one last hurrah.
Faith Hill has
just released The Hits. It’s out on Warner Bros
Records.
But rather than
a farewell, Hill, voted one of the 30 most powerful women in
America by Ladies Home Journal in 2001, has put together a
package proving her resume is anything but complete. For the
singer who left small town Star, Mississippi to become one in
Nashville, the album is a collection of memories and
chart-toppers.
The
breakthrough tune, “Wild One” is included. Crashing onto
the charts in 1994, for the singer born Audrey Faith Perry, it
created history. It enjoys the envy of being a chart-topper
for a whole four weeks; the album, Take Me As I Am, eventually
soared into the stratosphere with triple platinum sales. From
there Hill slowly, but surely, established herself as a
country music star – proof, if needed, can be seen in her
five Grammy awards, her million selling albums and the very
successful Soul 2 Soul tour with hubby, Tim McGraw.
That tour, one of the most dollar-pulling events in music, in
2006 set a single year box office gross record.
While I’m a
puzzled to see “Let’s Go To Vegas” (among others) not on
the list, The Hits comes with enough energy to push
over this minor grumble. There are new songs (2): the already
at radio “Red Umbrella”, and “Lost”, and of
course, there are the hits. And there are plenty.
Tracks like the
disclosing “Mississippi Girl”, 1995’s chart-climber
“It Matters To Me”, “I Need You” (duet with Tim
McGraw), “Breathe” (the video…remember Faith and those
sheets?) and “This Kiss” all offer value for money. But
with so many hits to her career, a two CD outing may have been
more fan friendly. Across her career of six albums, and I
won’t play favorites, there are tunes that might have been
included.
If there is to
be a downside, apart from the absence of some wished for
inclusions, it’s the lack of liner notes. Faith has a
history, an impressive one, and across these 15 tracks a
backdrop to the tunes would have been good. It’s a notable
loss for the fans, something that when Volume 2 arrives (there
has to be one) I, for one, hope something is included. The
cheesy promo shots of Hill – there are 11 in the liner –
should have been possibly scaled down to allow for some words
on her achievements. After all, hers is a story with all the
hallmarks of what she sings about – struggle, love and loss,
and eventual triumph.
Overall, this
album will keep the faithful interested. It also shows
rather than over the hill, Faith is, like The Hits
proves, anything but a package to be stuffed into a bargain
bin of yesterday’s heroes.
Click on the CD cover to order from Amazon.com.
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Links:
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