Patty Loveless

Strong Heart

Great album

Review Score:

(10/10)
This is a really underrated album from Patty Loveless, and it has some of her best material. There was a time, back between 1994-1996 where Patty Loveless was on top of country music, and was winning all sorts of accolades. When she released her 1997 album LONG STRETCH OF LONESOME, it failed to yield a top 10 hit and it seemed country radio lost interest after that. Which is a shame, because they missed the boat on this album, and ones that would follow this one that were truly exceptional.

This album gets a lot of criticism because it is apparantely "too pop". Not at all. The title track, and a few other songs, have pop sounding arrangements, but the heart of it is still country. You look at artists like Shania Twain, and you will see this is definately country in comparison to Shania!

The album opens with the Matraca Berg written "You're So Cool", which would have been a great single. It has a nice sing a long quality to it. "The Last Thing On My Mind", written by Rebecca Lynn Howard, is a great ballad that was the second single from the album. One of my favorites is "My Heart Will Never Break This Way Again", an excellent country ballad that teams Loveless up with Trisha Yearwood and Claire Lynch. Great song!

The first single from the album was "That's The Kind Of Moon I'm In", it should have been a bigger hit but didn't really catch on with country radio. "Thirsty" is a nice duet with Travis Tritt. The title track is another favorite, as is the wonderful ballad "She Never Stopped Loving Him", which is the show stopping song here I believe. So much passion and it's a sad story, but it's great.

Overall, her 2000 album STRONG HEART may not have been as popular as past albums, but don't pass on it, it's a great album with some really good songs that country radio should have heard!

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