Twisted Angel - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

The album was met with mixed reviews, as Metacritic gave it a score of 51 out of 100. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave a mixed review about the album. Though praising Rimes for her conversion to pop by stating that it "isn't a bad career move at all, since there's a void there with the absence of Whitney Houston, the breakdown of Mariah Carey, and Christina Aguilera's bizarre insistence to strip instead of sing", Erlewine noted that Rimes "may not be an audience for it: even though this is well done, it is so pop it will alienate her older fans, and she needs to win over an older audience that may not be taken with her newly sexualized image." He also stated that the song-writing in on the album was "a little uneven; often, it's very good workmanlike mainstream pop, but there are a couple of duds (namely, the irritating chorus on the "sassy" "Trouble With Goodbye"), and even the best material is melodic without being hooky or memorable." Erlewine's biggest problem was the production and attitude of the album which he stated is "kind of fall through the cracks in 2002, when teen pop is dead and mainstream pop is veering away from divas and toward quirkier, friendlier singers like Vanessa Carlton, Avril Lavigne, and Michelle Branch." Erlewine concluded with stating that even though Rimes didn't do a bad job trying to get into mainstream pop he did state that the album is a bit "dated" and stated that Rimes would be better off using a different production team then Desmond Child. Jon Caramanica of Entertainment Weekly on the other hand gave the album a C+, stating that Rimes "desperately wants to play with the bad girls" and concluded by writing "Someone unbreak her heart, please." Dave Gil de Rubio of Barnes & Noble.com stated that Rimes is "moving farther from her country music roots with a set of songs closer in spirit to junior divas Britney and Christina." Jon Caramanica of Rolling Stone gave the album two out of five stars and stated, "Rimes, who got her start aping Patsy Cline, slaps her throaty drawl over hip-hop lite beats Jessica Simpson wouldn't touch, and a succession of mushy love songs don't help. With golden pipes and white-bread good looks, she could succeed Celine Dion as North America's ranking pop balladeer; in the meantime let's hope Nashville will take her back, and quick."