Audio Cd

Jo Dee Messina's first release in 5 years!
Here is the first in a trilogy of EP's to be released throughout 2010! Volume 1 is titled 'Unmistakable: Love' and offers seven new songs as well as live acoustic cuts of 'Because You Love Me' and 'Stand Beside Me.' 'Unmistakable: Drive' and 'Unmistakable: Inspiration' are expected later in the year.

On her fourth studio album, Messina, country's queen of hope and empowerment, roars back after a four-year hiatus, during which she went public with a stint at rehab and broke off a nine-year relationship with her fiancé. Those events stand at the center of two of the best ballads on the album ("It Gets Better" and "Sometimes Love Is Just Not Enough"), and please not only because Messina wrote (or cowrote) them from real-life struggles, but because the songs soften the numbing bombast that producers Byron Gallimore and Mark Bright bring to the rest of her repertoire. The singer--big-voiced, expansive, and as comforting as an old friend--is always a welcome presence on the radio, as she is on the album's first single, the upbeat and attitudinal kiss-off "My Give a Damn's Busted." What she needs is more songs like this that break her out of her usual mold (in addition to the aforementioned tracks that showcase her quieter side) and allow her to deliver a surprise or two. The ones offered here aren't quite as "delicious" as the album title promises, but even the most casual listener senses that Messina has so much spunk and grit that she'll gather them yet, her myopic producers be damned. --Alanna Nash

After the popular breakthrough of 1998's I'm Alright, Jo Dee Messina returns with another testament to the power of positive singing. Practically every song on her third album plays like the musical equivalent of a self-help book, from the postbreakup recovery of the album-opening "Downtime" to the "be anyone you want to be" affirmation of the title track. The Boston-bred, Nashville-based Messina is a younger generation's Reba, with the conviction in her conversational phrasing redeeming the clichés of her material ("Live, love, seize the day") and transcending the mechanical schlock of so many of the arrangements. The duet with coproducer Tim McGraw on "Bring on the Rain" is an album-closing highlight. --Don McLeese

Jo Dee recorded this album live in the studio backed by a full orchestra. By doing so, the project took on a new dynamic, with Jo Dee rising to the occasion. The first Christmas album from the multi-Platinum artist. Curb Records. 2002.