Twisted Angel

Background

After re-signing her contract with Curb Records, Rimes began work recording songs for Twisted Angel for three years. It is the first album she would do under her new management. It is also the first album that Rimes's father, Wilbur C. Rimes, did not produce - instead Rimes was the executive producer of the album herself.

Singles

Two singles were released from the album. "Life Goes On" was released as the lead single from the album on August 26, 2002. Holly George-Warren of Entertainment Weekly claimed the song would "probably go on to number one on the pop chart." The song peaked at number nine on the Adult Contemporary chart, thirty-five on the Pop Songs chart, twenty-eight on the Adult Pop Songs and sixty on the Country Songs chart in the US. The second single and final single, "Suddenly", was released internationally on February 18, 2003. The song peaked at forty-three on the Country song chart in the US.

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 than 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."

Credits and personnel

Credits for Twisted Angel were adapted from liner notes.

*Note: Gary Evans appears courtesy of Deston Entertainment

Charts

Twisted Angel debuted at #12 on Billboard 200 with 61,398 copies sold in its 1st week, it fell by 47% with 32,619 copies sold in its 2nd week. and a 14% decrease in its 3rd with 28,176 copies sold.